ADOPT A HERITAGE PROJECT

Recently, the Narayankoti temple (Uttarakhand) has been included under the Centre’s Adopt a Heritage project

Important points:

• Launched on 27th September, 2017 (World Tourism Day), it is a collaborative effort by the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), State/UTs Governments.
• To develop tourism amenities at heritage/ natural/ tourist sites spread across India to make them tourist friendly, in a planned and phased manner.
• The sites/monuments are selected on the basis of tourist footfall and visibility and can be adopted by private and public sector companies and individuals — known as Monument Mitras — for an initial period of five years.
• The Monument Mitras are selected by the ‘oversight and vision committee,’ co-chaired by the Tourism Secretary and the Culture Secretary, on the basis of the bidder’s ‘vision’ for development of all amenities at the heritage site.
• There is no financial bid involved.
• The corporate sector is expected to use Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for the upkeep of the site.

Narayankoti Temple:

• The temple is a group of ancient temples, about 2 km from Guptkashi on the Rudraprayag-Gaurikund highway.
• This is the only place in the country which has nine planetary temples in a group that are a “symbol of nine planets”.
• It is devoted to Lakshmi Narayana who is associated with Pandavas.
• It is believed that these temples were constructed in the 9th century.

SOURCE: THE HINDU ,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT