Union Budget 2019: 17 iconic places to be developed into world-class destinations

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday said the government will build 17 iconic sites to encourage arrival of tourists in India. “One hundred new clusters will be set up in 2019-20 to enable 50,000 artisans to come into the economic value chain,” she said.

“Developing key tourist centres will have ripple effects on job creation in areas such as tour and safari guides, hotels, catering and housekeeping staff, shops at tourist spots etc. It is possible to identify 10 tourism spots in each of the larger 20 states and 5 spots in the 9 smaller states and build road and air connectivity in these tourist attractions, which would boost economic activity along the entire route and would also reduce the migration of the rural labour force who form a major proportion of the total labour force,” said a PIB release.

The finance minister said the government will take measures to ensure that the rich tribal culture of the country is preserved. Sitharaman said a digital tribal repository will be created, in which photos, videos, details of origin, education, lifestyle, skill sets, traditional arts and other anthropological information will be stored.

“The government will launch a mission to integrate traditional artisans and creative persons with the global market to obtain patents for them,” she said.

Transport sector has been allocated enhanced outlay of Rs 83,000 crore in the Union Budget presented today. Budgetary allocation for the Ministry last year was Rs 78,626 crore.