Centre selects Tirupati, Srisailam, pilgrim centres under Prasad project in AP
Tirupati: The Centre has announced another project to the temple town.
Tirupati has been selected for National Mission on Pilgrimage and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (Prasad).
The project which aims to develop the temple town by providing good roads, solid waste management, uninterrupted water supply, battery operated vehicles, e-rickshaws, preservation of heritage structures, sound and light shows, passenger terminals and street lighting. The project will be implemented by Tourism ministry which will provide funds to Municipal Corporation of Tirupati.
The project will be interlinked with Smart City project, where the Centre itself appoint a reputed consultancy to prepare detailed project report. According to official sources, the state government has sent proposals asking to identify Tirupati under HRIDAY (The Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) scheme aimed at preserving and revitalising the soul and unique character of the heritage cities.
But, the Centre has selected the temple town under Prasad, which will be better for it in providing facilities to the visiting devotees, while the HRIDAY scheme is confined to preservation of heritage structures.
According to V. Vinay Chand, Tirupati Municipal Corporation Commissioner, in addition to Amaravati, which was selected for Prasad earlier, now Tirupati and Srisailam have been selected for the project. As per the directions of the Centre, the MCT will forward proposals, recommendations for the scheme, where the temple city will be developed as per the needs of the pilgrims, he said.
“Tirupati was already selected as Smart City and in addition now it has been selected for Prasad, which will change the face of the city,” he hoped.
According to officials, the Centre has registered Tirupati Corporation Ltd, as part of Smart City project implementation process.
The first meeting of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be held very shortly where the development works taken up will be decided, they said.
The MCT is planning to launch Smart City project works formally during National Science Congress summit to be held in January first week, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
It may be recalled, 12 ancient cities with pilgrimage connections have been identified by the Union Ministry of Tourism for development under the Prasad earler.
The cities are Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Gaya (Bihar), Dwarka (Gujarat), Amritsar (Punjab), Pushkar-Ajmer (Rajasthan), Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu), Vellankani (Tamil Nadu), Puri (Odisha), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Kedarnath (Uttarakhand) and Kamakhya (Assam). Now Tirupati and Srisailam, both the ancient pilgrimage centres were selected under the project.
