Tourism Minister Anand Singh urges centre to develop Hampi under iconic tourist destination scheme

The Centre must consider the development of Hampi as a pilot project under the Iconic Tourist Sites’ scheme, Tourism Minister Anand Singh has stated in a letter to Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy.

Singh has pointed out that over the years, several infrastructure development plans for Hampi have only remained on paper.

He has requested that the Centre take up this destination as a pilot under the scheme, to materialise plans charted out at least for the last two decades.

Speaking at the tourism conference for southern states here, Singh also urged the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to allow film shooting at heritage sites, to tap into tourism potential. He also pointed out to a delay by the ASI in completing pending works in Hampi.

That the ASI does not coordinate with the state governments seemed to be a common complaint.

Several historical structures are being relegated to ruins owing to lack of cooperation from ASI, state government representatives lamented.

Telangana’s tourism minister Srinivas Goud questioned the ASI about the quality of maintenance of the heritage structures under their purview.

“The ASI must maintain an annual register on measures taken. They neither allow the state governments to take up repair works, nor do they do it themselves,” he alleged, urging them to coordinate with state governments.