Souparna Ghosh

2015A1PS703H
Heritage City development and Augmentation Yojana

Origin/Need for the Scheme:

India is a country endowed with a rich and diverse cultural and natural history but due to
overlying difficulties it is yet to unleash the full potential of these resources. Previous efforts
of preserving such cultural and historic assets were isolated or were carried out, out of need
or necessity and not with the right intentions or outcomes. The Heritage City Development
and Augmentation Yojana Scheme not only aim at conserving the few historical monuments
at a place but it aims at elevating the living standards, cleanliness, security planning and
rejuvenation of the whole city and its soul. Most Heritage areas are generally not attended to
regularly, congested with insufficient basic amenities and infrastructure. For example: clean
washrooms, proper lighting and adequate signboards are missing at most places. Many
organisations and debatable regulatory frameworks for funding and supervising urban
heritage estates and topographies have led to challenging situations for their management. To
tap into the infinite potential concealed in our tourism and culture we need a well organised
approach and unleash the powers of our virtuoso artisans and conventional economy. This
will help us in achieving a smooth harmony of local economic development through locally
available understanding, assets and skills. The Heritage City Development and Augmentation
Yojana Scheme presents a fundamental transition in Indias vision of city evolution; an
amalgamation of urban planning and heritage conservation in an inclusive and integrated
manner with focus on sustenance, expertise, neatness, safety, accessibility and service
delivery. The extensive approximation for execution will be schedule based rather than
agenda based and accordingly the scheme will not restrict itself or generate dependency on
proposed activities but will be based on the requirement from the cities.

Scheme Statement:

- Protect and revive the soul of the heritage city to mirror its best characteristics by
empowering its stylishly engaging, open, instructive and secured condition.

- To embrace vital and arranged advancement of the heritage cities aiming at the
enhancement in overall quality of life with specific focus on sanitation, security, tourism,
cultural renewal and employments retaining its social identity.

Scheme Strategy:
It will have full subsidy originating from Central Government.
For recognized undertakings to profit under the plan, cities will be required to ready a
Heritage Management Plan (HMP) for the city/town and also prepare Detailed Project
Reports (DPRs).
The National Mission Directorate/City mission Directorate through Public Works
Organisation (PWO), Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), Central Public Sector
 Undertakings (CPSUs), State-para statals, NGOs of repute might produce the HMPs
and DPRs.
On the proposal of the National Mission Directorate (NMD), funds will be
apportioned to Executing Offices by MoUD and the ventures will be executed by
PWOs, SPVs, and CPSUs etc.
NIUA is appointed as National Project Management Unit for HRIDAY Scheme and
will work as a secretariat for Mission Directorate.
City Mission Directorate (CMD) will have the City Project Management Unit
(CPMU) as its Secretariat, secured by the NMD.
The venture will work through an organization of Government, scholarly foundations
and neighbourhood group joining reasonable technologies.

Scheme Objectives:
The principle goal of HRIDAY is to protect character of the spirit of legacy city and
encourage comprehensive heritage linked urban advancement by investigating different
roads. Specific Objectives are:

Organization, advancement and execution of heritage delicate framework.

Benefit conveyance and framework provisioning in noteworthy areas of the historic
city.
Save and rejuvenate tradition wherein visitors can interface specifically with city's
interesting character.
Create and archive a heritage resource stock of cities - natural, social, living and
constructed heritage as a reason for urban planning, development and administration
arrangement.
Implementation and upgrade of essential administrations conveyance with focus on
sanitation services like public comforts, toilets, water taps, road lights with utilization
of most recent innovations in enhancing vacationer conveniences.
Local limit improvement for comprehensive heritage based industry.
Make viable linkages amongst tourism and social offices and furthermore the
preservation of common and assembled heritage.
Urban heritage versatile recovery and upkeep, including suitable innovations for
historic structures retrofitting.
Set up and oversee viable public/private organization for adaptive urban restoration.
Improvement and advancement of core unmistakable monetary exercises to upgrade
roads of employments among partners.
This would likewise incorporate vital ability improvement among them including
making public spaces available and creating cultural spaces.
Making communities useful with utilization of present day Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) instruments and making cities secure with modern
supervision and security contraption like CCTV and so forth.
Increment accessibility i.e. physical admittance (streets and in addition general plan)
and scholarly access (i.e. digital heritage and Geographic Information System (GIS)
mapping of chronicled areas/tourist maps and courses).
Scheme Duration:
The HRIDAY scheme has been proposed for a span of 4 years, starting from December 2014
and ending on March 2018.

Coverage:
HRIDAY started off with its main targets being 12 heritage cities: Ajmer, Amrawati, Badami,
Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Vellankanni, Varanasi and Warangal. During
2015-16, Patna and in 2016-17, 12 more sites were added in the scheme for development
namely: Ayodhya, Badrinath, Belur, Deoghar, Guruvayur, Hazratbal and Katra,
Omkareshwar, Somnath, Srisailam and Tirupati, Trimbakeshwar.

Review:

Factual Evidence: In the first phase, the Central government released Rs 60 crore for
development works. Officials of various departments were directed to expedite and
complete the restoration work by March 2017. This included the development of various
roads leading to the Golden Temple and Durigana Temple, restoration of the historic
Ram Bagh (summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh), Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama
and the 40 Khuh, among others. While detailed project reports of a number of heritage
sites were being prepared, development of several others was underway.

The Central government has already sanctioned Rs 60 crore for the first phase in
Amritsar. Under the project, the administration envisaged a comprehensive road
development and upgrade of 21 major roads leading to Darbar Sahib. The roads would
have storm sewer drainage system, street and landscaping by way of constructing of a
nearly 300-meter buffer pedestrian zone around the holy Sikh shrine. Around Rs 32
crore would be spent on the project. Rs 7 crore would be spent on the historic Ram Bagh
and upgrade of the Panorama.

Similarly, Rs 6 crore would be spent on Gobindgarh Fort and Durgiana Temple. And for
developing the 40 Khuh, a sum of Rs 5 crore would be spent. For Development of basic
facilities at Vishnupad Temple, Gaya in Bihar under this Scheme first installment of Rs.85.78
lakh has been released.

Inference: Thus we see that the scheme has actually worked wonders for the places where it
has been implemented. Though it may not achieve all its goals within the time period set, it
has still done a wonderful job which can be easily inferred from the fact that it has been
extended to include even more Historical and Heritage sites in its jurisdiction so that
HRIDAY can preserve and protect them and eventually make them more tourist friendly.
HRIDAY scheme has been the perfect answer to the declining condition of our heritage sites
because it doesnt look at the buildings as isolated but actually works on them at the very
basic grass roots level so that the foundation can be bettered and thus providing longevity to
these invaluable treasures of INDIA.