Title - Rly sanctions Rs 27 cr to make five stations tourist-friendly

Aiming at making railway stations tourist-friendly, the Tourism Ministry has sanctioned about Rs 27 crore for development of amenities at five stations including Amritsar, Rai Barelli and Agra.

The other two stations are Trivandrum and Gaya where work for the beautification as well as development of basic amenities will be taken up jointly with the Railway Ministry, officials said.

Development of facilities at these five stations will be undertaken in association with Railway Ministry, said a senior Tourism Ministry official.

As part of the joint initiative, railways shall make land for the project available free of cost and render all possible assistance for completion of the project on time.

While the central assistance of Rs 10.28 crore is earmarked for Amritsar and Rae Barelli stations, Trivandrum station will get Rs 5.98 cr, Gaya and Agra stations will be given Rs 5.18 cr and Rs 5.05 cr respectively.

Railways will set up a monitoring committee with a member from the Tourism Ministry to monitor physical and financial progress of the projects, the official said.

Tourism Ministry has also undertaken 'Clean India' campaign to keep tourist sites clean and hygienic.

"Last week the campaign was launched at Taj Mahal by Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi and before that Qutab Minar was covered under the campaign. We are going to launch the cleanliness campaign at Varanasi ghat shortly," said the official.

The campaign will cover about 30 important tourist places, including heritage monuments in the first phase.