Centre’s ‘HRIDAY’ in Ajmer beating at a slow pace

The progress of the Centre’s ambitious National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana, better known as the HRIDAY scheme, is going on at a snail’s pace.

The deadline to complete projects under the scheme was March this year. But, on an average, only 24% progress had been achieved till December 2017. 

Under the scheme, five projects have been approved for Ajmer, the only city selected from Rajasthan.

An amount of Rs 35.43 crore was sanctioned for Ajmer and Rs 21.07 crore had already been released. 

The top two performers in the HRIDAY scheme are Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, which has achieved 46% progress, while Varanasi managed 43% progress under the scheme. The five projects sanctioned for Ajmer include development of a heritage walk connecting Akbari Quila to Soni Ji ki Nasiya, development of the Jaipur Road precinct, development of the Pushkar heritage walk, development of the Subhash Udyan and the Annasagar lake front makeover. The HRIDAY scheme was launched in January 2015 to ensure holistic development of 12 heritage cities of the country.

Objectives

The main objective of HRIDAY is to preserve the soul of a heritage city by facilitating inclusive urban development without damage to historical structures 

• Roping in the private sector for the project     
• Developing infrastructure that would facilitate a visit to the heritage sites.  
• Preserving the heritage wherein tourists can connect directly with city’s unique character.
• Charting an inventory of the heritage assets of a city and spruce them up.