Government proposes Rs 2,500 crore for tourism; eight new museums
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Nirmala Sitharaman also proposed the setting up of an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation
Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman proposed to allocate Rs 2,500 crore for the tourism sector and to construct eight new museums.
"To make India an attractive destination for both international and domestic tourists, we propose Rs 2,500 crore in 2020-21 for the tourism sector and Rs 3,150 crore for Ministry of Culture," said Sithraman while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 in Parliament.
While addressing the Parliament, Nirmala told about the improved tourism revenues due to better ranking.
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"India had moved up from rank 65 in 2014 to 34 in 2019 in the Travel and Tourism and due to tourism revenues and foreign exchange earnings grew 7.4 percent to Rs 1.88 lakh crore for the period January 2019 from Rs 1.75 lakh crore," she said.
She further proposed 8 new museums, which include building infrastructure around 5 iconic sites, besides proposing the renovation of 5 major museums across the length and breadth of India and setting up of a tribal museum in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
The 5 archaeological sites to be developed as iconic sites with on-site museums are situated at 'Rakhigarhi' Haryana, 'Hastinapur' Uttar Pradesh, 'Shivsagar' Assam, 'Dholavira' Gujarat and 'Adichanallur' Tamil Nadu.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday also proposed the setting up of an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation, under the Ministry of Culture.
While the fund for the Tourism Ministry was Rs 2,150 crore in the 2018-2019 Budget, it rose to Rs 2,189.22 crore in 2019-2020. The allocation for the Culture Ministry, which was Rs 2,843.32 crore in 2018-2019, increased to Rs 3,042.35 crore for 2019-2020.