In his maiden Budget Speech in the Parliament here, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that India’s rich cultural, historical, religious and natural heritage provides a huge potential for the development of tourism and job creation as an industry. Sarnath-Gaya-Varanasi Buddhist circuit would also be developed with world class tourist amenities to attract tourists from all over the world, he added.

The Finance Minister also announced the launching of National Heritage city Development and Augmentation Yojana for conserving and preserving the heritage characters of these cities. The programme will be launched in the cities such as Mathura, Amritsar, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Vellankani, and Ajmer with a provision of Rs. 200 crore in the current Budget. The project will work through a partnership of Government, Academic Institutions and local community combining affordable technologies.

A National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) with an outlay of Rs. 100 crore is also proposed to be launched in this financial year. The Finance Minister has set aside a sum of Rs. 100 crore for the preservation of archeological sites. Highlighting the importance of Goa emerging as a major international convention centre, the Finance Minister said that there is a need to develop world class convention facilities in the state. Government of India will fully support this initiative to develop the facilities in PPP mode through the VGF scheme, the Minister added.