Religious and cultural tourism in India has always been an attractive thematic area. To further popularise it, government is now developing a Ramayana Circuit. Information in this regard was shared by the Minister of State (I/C) of Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
Ramayana Circuit is one of the fifteen thematic circuits identified for development under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of Ministry of Tourism. Fifteen destinations have been identified by the Government for development of tourism under the Ramayana Circuit The Ministry has initially identified destinations including Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur & Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh), Sitamarhi, Buxar & Darbhanga (Bihar), Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), Mahendragiri (Odisha), Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh), Nashik & Nagpur (Maharashtra), Bhadrachalam (Telangana), Hampi (Karnataka) and Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu).
The projects for development under the scheme are identified in consultation with the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations and are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable detailed project reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilization of funds released earlier.