Some Heritage and Cultural Sites to be Taken Over by India Incorporation




March16, 2016 | V. Velayudam

As the name indicates, PPP or public private partnership model is one where the Government and private parties take control of something so that it is managed in an effective and efficient manner. In the same lines, India Incorporation, which consists of few reputed public sector undertakings like SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited), IOC (Indian Oil Corporation), STC (State Trading Corporation), Bokaro Steel Plant, GAIL (Gas Authority of India Limited), UCO Bank, PEC (Projects & Equipment Corporation of India ), NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), SBI (State Bank of India), Shipping Corporation and BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) have joined together to adopt few of the cultural and heritage sites like Mahabalipuram Temples, Khajuraho Temples, Sun Temple, Lodhi Gardens Monument and Tuqlaqabad Fort in New Delhi.

Why these have been adopted?

These places have been taken up in the PPP model in order to preserve them better and attract more foreigners to these sites. During the year 2015, though the number of tourists increased to 80.16lakhs from 76.79lakhs tourists of 2014, there was a dip in FEE (Foreign Exchange Earnings) by around 2.8% ($19.67billion in 2015 vs. $20.23billion in 2014). This clearly indicates that there was a slight decrease in the number of foreign tourists to India.

The above mentioned places are highly regarded by foreign tourist and therefore, it becomes imperative to preserve them and manage them in a better. This is precisely why the PPP model was thought about. With better management, the tourism ministry is presenting its “Incredible India” campaign to its foreign tourists.

Other initiatives to woo foreign tourists

Apart from better preservation of monuments, Indian Tourism Ministry has also started the e-tourist visa procedure from 2014 onwards to simplify the visa formalities for people visiting India on short travel, medical tourism, sight-seeing and others. Currently this facility is available to tourists coming from over 150 countries.

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