Rs. 500 crore sanctioned for developing heritage cities

The urban development ministry has sanctioned Rs. 500 crores for the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), that aims to develop 12 heritage cities, and will be launched shortly, an official statement said Saturday.

"At least 85 percent of the total outlay will be earmarked for project formulation and execution while the remaining 15 percent shall be utilized for other critical components including capacity building, establishment of project management units and preparation of heritage management plan (HMP)," said the statement.

The heritage cities are Amritsar, Ajmer, Mathura, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Vellankanni, Varanasi, Puri, Dwarka, Badami, Warrangal and Amrawati.

The decision was made during a national level city stakeholder consultation organised by the urban development ministry to finalize the guidelines for the HRIDAY scheme.

The consultation was presided over by Minister of Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu and his deputy Babul Supriyo.

"The future development of any city must take into consideration its nature, history, and culture, thus capturing its unique heritage," Naidu said during the conference.

He emphasised the four thrust areas for holistic development, namely, physical infrastructure, institutional infrastructure, economic infrastructure and social infrastructure and suggested that they should be included in the guidelines.

Babul Supriyo stressed the significance of developing and incorporating intangible heritage, such as performing arts, local cuisines and craftsmanship into every aspect of the cities' functioning.

The participants at the joint consultation included municipal commissioners, district magistrates and other representatives of the heritage cities.