Rs 7 crore spent on tourist villages and circuits in J and K

Srinagar, Sep 17 (UNI) Under the Prime Minister Reconstruction Programme (PMRP), an amount of Rs 9.55 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of tourist villages and circuits in Jammu and Kashmir.

An official spokesman said an amount of Rs 3.98 crore had been incurred on the development of nine tourist villages, out of the total allocation of Rs 9.55 crore for the purpose.

He said as many as 50 villages had been identified in the state for the development as tourist villages under the PMRP.

As per the rural tourism guidelines, each village would get Rs 70 lakh from the Centre for development.

Nine villages, which were being developed presently, were Gagangir, Pahalgam, Drang-Gulmarg, Jhiri-Jammu, Surinsar-Jammu, Akingam-Anantnag, Vasuknag-Anantnag, Dori-Degair and Watlab-Baramulla.

As many as 52 schemes had been launched in these villages for integrated development.

He said 35 schemes had been sanctioned by the Centre 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 had been utilised 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.

UNI BAS QAB SW CS1752