Govt to give facelift to 45 temples, 5 ashrams in state

LUCKNOW: The state government has taken up promotion of places of religious importance on priority. This is part of the union ministry of tourism’s initiative to earmark 94 tourist sites across UP for a facelift with special emphasis on religious tourism.

Of these sites, 45 are temples. Maghar Dham in Sant Kabir Nagar where poet Kabir is buried and Jain temple Trilok Teerth Dham in Badagaon, Baghpat, also figure on the list.

The famous Durvasa ashram, Chandra Muni ashram, Dattary ka Ashram in Azamgarh district and two in Kanpur – Valmiki and Lav Kush ashrams – will also get a makeover.

Besides, forts, temples and lakshagrah of Mahabharat period in Baghpat are on the list of 94 sites selected by the government.

For effective implementation, the project has been divided into three parts – heritage circuit with a corpus of Rs 41.50 crore, spiritual circuit-1 having budget of Rs 76 crore and spiritual circuit-2 having fund of Rs 62.95 crore.

For all the three circuits, the state government has appointed three agencies for effectively rolling out the project. Construction activity on most of the sites has begun and initial amounts have also been released.

Apart from religious sites, shaheed smaraks in Meerut, Mau, Fatehpur and the famous Kalinjar Fort of Banda have also been selected for renovation.

SHAHEED SMARAKS IN MEERUT, MAU, FATEHPUR AND KALINJAR FORT OF BANDA WILL ALSO BE RENOVATED