Gujarat Tourism plans 'Sant Nagari' or Spiritual Park to woo pilgrims

Sant Nagari would house the teachings of 2,300 saints including Gautam Buddha, Sant Kabir and others under one roof

Gujarat government has set the ball rolling on one of Narendra Modi’s  pet tourism projects, “Sant Nagari” spread over 500 acres in Sabarkantha district. As the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi had conceived the project as a spiritual park that would house the teachings of 2,300 saints including Gautam Buddha, Sant Kabir and others under one roof.

The state government is also likely to seek investments for this project during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit. The idea is to find a private partner who together with a public sector entity like the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board (GPYVB) would float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to execute the project. The project cost is estimated to be around Rs 575 crore or so. 

The site for the project has already been finalised. It is a site near the Dharoi dam in the Sabarkantha district of the state. The state government has also taken possession of around 172 hectares of land at the site from the state revenue department. 

A senior official informed that the planning for the project is almost complete. “We are also planning to seek help from the Centre to execute this one of a kind project in the country. There is no other similar site for pilgrimage tourism in India that showcases the teachings of over 2,000 spiritual ‘gurus’,”he said. 

The state government is upbeat on tapping the potential for pilgrimage tourism in Gujarat; given the existence of popular pilgrimages like Somnath and Dwarka. As such spiritual tourists account for nearly 30% of the overall tourist flow to this state, and is clocking a 16% growth rate. 

The number of tourists coming to Gujarat grew from 17 million tourists in FY10 to 38.3 million tourists in FY16. It is another story that 73.6% of these  tourists  are actually people from Gujarat. For 2015-16, number of tourists who originated from within Gujarat were 28.1 million or about 73.6% of the total footfall. 

Tour operators say that pilgrimage spots like Ambaji, Dwarka and Somnath are very popular amongst Gujarati tourists as well. The state government expects around 5 million tourists to visit the spot annually. 

The proposed Sant Nagari that is expected to be developed in three phases would house seven zones or pavilions that would showcase the teachings of Gautam Buddha, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Guru Gobind Singh, Sant Kabir and Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti among others.

Each zone, on the other hand would have segments that would show the life and teachings of these saints from across the country, apart from meditation halls, prayer halls, knowledge centre, residential areas, public utilities among others.