Leverage heritage sites as tool for development & employment generation: NITI Aayog report

A NITI Aayog working group under the chairmanship of Amitabh Kant has presented an action plan for heritage management of monuments in the country. The group in its report pitched for adopting revenue generation model through PPP schemes and voiced its views that the central and state governments should leverage India’s massive network of heritage sites as a tool for development and employment generation by providing improved services to domestic and international tourists. It also said that each ASI heritage site should be a profit centre by generating more revenues from ticketing, souvenir shops, food and beverage outlets.

The report also suggested that International Heritage Circuits should be developed jointly with other countries, especially where shared heritage is evident, such as the Buddhist circuit and Hinduism circuit with South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

Among other recommendations, the working group suggested restructuring of ASI, creating a National Archaeological Database, defining bye-laws for prohibited and regulated areas around monuments, support to state governments and other organisations such as temple trusts to boost the tourism sector.