Bodhgaya to host 3-day Buddhist Conference from Feb 4

New Delhi, Jan 25 (UNI) An International Buddhist Conference will be held in Bodhgaya during February 4-6 as part of the observance of the 2550th year of "Mahaparinirvana" of Lord Buddha.

The year-long programme, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in May last, will culminate with a series of programmes at Kushinagar in May this year, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni announced here today.

Inaugurating a conference on ''Positioning India as a hub for Buddhist Tourism,'' she said a Rs 570 crore integrated project for infrastructure development with assistance from the Japanese Government would be implemented to cover several states that has Buddhist sites. In this context she pointed out that the Tourism Ministry had released Rs 90 crore for the development of about 100 projects relating to Buddhist sites in the past one decade.

Lauding the media campaigns popularising the "Buddhist Circuit" under the theme 'Walk with the Buddha', she said Buddhist sites such as Bodhgaya, Rajgir and Nalanda would be made tourist-friendly by improving the facilities.

The facilities at the historic sites forming part of the Buddhist circuit will be developed through public-private partnership to attract more tourists.

Ms Soni said efforts should be made to convert Buddhist Circuit into a pilgrimage circuit for the Buddhist devotees globally. She cited infrastructure bottlenecks as a major hindrance for promoting the circuit.

Ms Soni released a study on ''Positioning India as a hub for Buddhist Tourism'' on the occasion.

UNI