[CPProt.net] India: Government draws up ambitious plan to promote heritage tourism

[Ellie Bruggeman]

Government draws up ambitious plan to promote heritage tourism
Wednesday June 22 2005 14:20 IST
KENDRAPARA: In a bid to attract more tourists, the State Government has
drawn up an ambitious project to develop the Buddhist circuit of
Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri, Langudi and Udayagiri.

The Government has already sanctioned Rs 6 crore out of an estimated
project cost of Rs 10 crore. Tourism and Culture Director Santosh Kumar
Sarangi revealed this after his recent visit to Buddhist monasteries here.

The Government plans to acquire four acres of land near Lalitgiri hillock
and five acres of land near Langudi to develop tourist complexes. The
complexes will house prayer halls, rest places for the tourists and sale
counters for handicraft products. Other developmental works to woo
tourists are also mooted.

Rural Development Department has been asked to hand over its two
inspection bungalows at Lalitgiri and Patarajpur to the Tourism
Department. The Tourism Department has already constructed one guest house
at Ratnagiri while another one will be constructed at Udayagiri, said
Sarangi.

He said the district administration has been directed to evict the
encroachments at Ratnagiri. The authorities had fenced the areas but the
locals have managed to damage the fences in some places.

Two years back, the government had directed RDC (Central) L.N.Gupta to
investigate large-scale encroachment at Ratnagiri. But the authorities are
yet to act on the inquiry report, it is alleged.

Sarangi has requested the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) authorities
to fence the historic sites falling under its jurisdiction.

During his visit, the locals drew his attention to theft of some Buddha
statues and damage of others due to lack of security around the sites in
recent years.

Four years back, a Buddha statue was decapitated and last year another
statue was stolen from Udayagiri.

At Lalitgiri, the locals demanded restoration of the relics of Buddha
statues to its original place from where the ASI had unearthed those
during the eighties from a ‘stupa’.

At present, the sacred relics are kept under the custody of the ASI office
in Bhubaneswar.

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