UP govt to revamp 5 pilgrim spots

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 12 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday issued directives to revamp the five prominent pilgrim spots in the state including Chitrakoot and Vindhyachal.
According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister's office, the Yogi-led government in UP would equip famous religious sites like Naimisharanya, Chitrakoot, Vidhyanchal, Shakumbhari Devi and Shukratirtha with advanced facilities for the convenience of the devotees.
"The state government has also made several budgetary provisions worth crores for site development and beautification of all the religious places. The premises of the temples will be renovated and re-developed with proper roads, parking facilities and will be equipped with adequate sanitation facilities and strict security measures," the statement said.
"The government has instructed to develop Shakumbhari Devi at Saharanpur and Shukra Tirtha at Muzaffarnagar to attract more tourists to this region. Whereas it has simultaneously prepared a roadmap for the development of Lord Ram's 'Taposthali' (the site for meditation), Chitrakoot and Naimisharanya in Awadh which is believed to be the center of meditation of 88,000 sages as well as of the Shakti Peetha at Vindhyachal," it said.
Uttar Pradesh scaled up to the top rank position for attracting the highest number of domestic tourists in 2019 with a share of about 23 percent travellers visiting the state. The state has also acquired the third position for bringing in the influx of foreign tourists with a record footfall of approximately 47 lakh foreigners visiting in the year 2019.
"Besides, the state government's new exercise to classify tourism in Uttar Pradesh based on the identification of various circuits including the Ramayana circuit, Braj circuit, Mahabharat circuit, Shaktipeeth circuit, Adhyatmik circuit, Jain circuit and Buddhist circuit, is yielding conferring results as it is automatically attracting foreign as well as domestic tourists by gratification intent," the statement added. (ANI)