By Madhusree Chatterjee
Hardwar, Jan 13 (IANS) The hill state of Uttarakhand is promoting the temple towns of Hardwar and Rishikesh as the biggest urban spiritual tourism destinations in the world on the strength of the Kumbh Mela. The government has sanctioned infrastructure and town planning projects worth Rs.545.97 crore for the mela, which begins Jan 14.

“We are making it one of the biggest cultural showcases to tell the world that Hardwar is the seat of spiritual tourism in India. Our focus this year is to put permanent tourism infrastructure in place,” Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said at a press briefing at the sprawling tent township off Har-ki-Pauri erected to host the media.

“The exercise to roll out permanent infrastructure is a collective effort between the Centre and private parties so that the town can host mega religious festivals. We have managed to put 80 percent of the infrastructure in place. Only 20 percent remains to be completed,” Pokhriyal said.

The new infrastructure includes a modern car park, foot bridges and a network of arterial roads connecting Har-ki-Pauri to the neighbouring shrines and residential areas.

The temple town is wearing a new look with new hotels and freshly-laid out asphalt roads to accommodate the nearly 70 million pilgrims who are expected to flock to the city in the next three months till April 14, when the fair ends.

According to the chief minister: “This is a good time to get additional tourism infrastructure in place to boost the local economy.”

Pokhriyal said the state government has sanctioned projects worth Rs.545.97 crore for “creating new infrastructure”.

“Of this amount, we have already allotted Rs.408.50 crore,” the chief minister said.

Giving a break-up of expenses, senior civic officials said: “The government has sanctioned Rs.48.54 crore for building 15.54 km of new roads, Rs.80.14 crore to upgrade old roads, Rs.58.85 crore to renovate the hill bypass and Rs.58.85 crore to build nine new bridges across the Ganges”.

The government is also building 73.50 km of approach roads to the shrines fanning out radially from the Shiva temple at Har-ki-Pauri and the Brahma Kund - the area where the Shahi Snans (holy dips) are scheduled to begin at midnight Jan 14.

The chief minister said the state has allocated Rs.19.39 crore to “improve power supply in Hardwar and to set up new sub-power stations and transmission channels while Rs.4.72 crore has been earmarked for street illumination”.

The capacity of generating drinking water has been hiked from 63 mld (million litres daily) to 106 mld, the chief minister said.

As part of the Save-the-Ganga mission, which is the civic and religious cornerstone of the 2010 Kumbh Mela, the state government has sanctioned Rs.23.85 crore to build 4.75 km of new bathing ghats - enclaves - and 33.97 km of new sewer lines at a cost of Rs.37.84 crore.