An amount of Rs. 3.98 crore has been incurred on the development of 9 tourist villages, out of the total allocation of Rs. 9.55 crore for the purpose.
As many as, 50 villages have been identified in the State for the development as tourist villages under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme (PMRP). As per the Rural Tourism guidelines, each village will get Rs. 70 lakh from Government of India for development.
Nine villages which are being developed presently are Gagangir, Pahalgam, Drang-Gulmarg, Jhiri-Jammu, Surinsar-Jammu, Akingam-Anantnag, Vasuknag-Anantnag, Dori-Degair and Watlab-Baramulla. As many as 52 schemes have been launched in these villages for integrated development.
Thirty five schemes have been sanctioned by the Central Government for the development of three tourist circuits namely Jammu-Lakhanpur-Bani-Sarthal, Bhaderwah-Kishtwar-Sarthal-Srinagar and Jammu-Rajouri-Poonch. An amount of Rs. 3.04 crore have been utilized so far on these schemes, out of Rs. 17.42 crore released for the three projects. The total cost envisaged for the development of three circuits amounts to Rs. 21.79 crore.