Facilities at heritage sites to be restored: Jaitley

Acknowledging the need to improve facilities at the Unesco World Heritage Sites in India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday proposed to initiate the restoration process of eight sites including Leh Palace and churches and convents of Old Goa among others.

"Facilities like landscaping restoration, signage and interpretation centres, parking, access for differently-abled, amenities for visitors, including securities and toilets, illumination and plans for benefiting communities around them would be restored," he said, presenting the union budget in parliament.

Jaitley proposed to provide resources to start work heritage sites like Hampi(Karnataka), Kumbalgarh and hill forts of Rajasthan, Rani ki Vav, Patan (Gujarat), Varanasi temple town (Uttar Pradesh), Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar) and Qutub Shahi tombs(Hyderabad).

There are 32 world heritage properties in India, of which 25 are cultural properties and seven are natural properties.