INDIA PUTS AYODHYA ON TOURIST MAP

In a tacit move to boost the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Centre has put Ayodhya on India’s tourism map. With the tourism ministry putting it on the list of cities for promoting tourism, plush hotels, a high-tech railway station and a state-of-the-art campus will come up to woo tourists.

The VHP, flag-bearer of the mandir movement of the early 1990s, has been raising the pitch for early construction of the mandir at the disputed site ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre in May 2014. It has urged the government to pass a law in Parliament at the earliest. It was the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, that is credited for bringing the BJP to the national centre stage.

After the BJP formed its government in UP under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the state has been inundated with sops from the Centre, including clearance of the long-delayed plot for the `225-crore Ramayana museum.

ministry official said.

The other cities on the list are Gaya, Mathura, Varanasi, Sarnath, Gorakhpur, Agra, Amritsar, Kanyakumari and Guwahati.

These places will all get a five-star hotel, an airport if needed, a railway station with wi-fi and other facilities and a smooth network of roads and communication lines that will lure a tourist to spend a night or two there.

“The idea is to build a whole new experience around the present site. For example, if a tourist goes to Agra, he shouldn't come back to Delhi at the end of the day,” the official said.

The cities, ministry sources said, were chosen because these are existing tourist areas.

The effort will now be to develop the regions around the tourist site to increase footfalls. “We are going to develop tourist spots in and around the city to keep tourists engaged. This plan is to be followed in each city,” the official added. The ministry formed a panel of senior officials to draw up blueprints for each city along with cost estimates.

Meanwhile, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Saturday had said the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya was a matter of faith for Hindus and that there could be no compromise on this issue.