Inbound

Temple consortium to promote religious tourism in India

Neeti Mehra

The first International Tourism Summit held in Mumbai, organised by the Siddhivinayak Temple, brought together different temple trusts from across India and Nepal in the same forum to discuss issues and problems faced by institutions of worship. Also announced at this event by former tourism minister, Renuka Chowdhary, was the establishment of an apex body to promote temple tourism and facilitate the modernisation of temples. This body would also act as a conduit between the state governments, surface transport ministry and the temple trusts. In addition, she announced that a tourism sub-plan would be introduced under which every ministry will have to set aside 2-5 per cent of funds allocated, for the development of infrastructure for tourism.

Speaking at the summit, the erstwhile minister said, "The ministry intends to create a ripple effect for tourism by acting as a support structure. The role of the government will be that of a conduit to enhance and supplement what already exists. Infrastructure will be set up in a structured manner by enhancing train and flight connectivity, establishing overnight shelters, medical care centers, security for places of worship, and surveillance facilities, if necessary."

Sanjay Bhagwat, CEO, Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, said "This summit is the first of its kind. This inter faith consortium has come together to address a host of problems such as financial limitations, poor logistics, and security, which necessitated an institutional arrangement. This will be a self generating revenue model; with a certain percentile charged for every transaction put aside to the fund established, over and above the initial investment."

A website and call center will be set up by the consortium. The facilities provided will include an information portal, kiosk, common pilgrim database, legal help desk, people's forum, etc. It will also build an association with international and Indian business houses along with international societies for promotion of traditions and culture. It also aims to create the world's richest single consortium of temples to promote India. Also on the anvil is to join hands with various government departments like tourism, Railway, etc. for promotion of temples and using the banner of 'The Consortium' try to implement special schemes for pilgrims like special trains, discounts etc. A full fledged multi module ERP, an all India toll free number for help, with multilingual support, and e-seva facilities will be created so that devotees from all over the world can access this.