Uttarakhand bets on ‘Ramayana Circuit’ to drive religious tourism

Uttarakhand is looking to develop a ‘Ramayana Circuit’, comprising all holy sites linked with Ramayana in the state, to boost religious tourism.

Under the initiative, officials are keen to bring holy sites associated with Ramayana and build them for tourists to visit and learn about. “We have some holy sites and temples in the state which are linked with Ramayana. We will develop all of them and bring it under our initiative of Ramayana circuit to boost religious tourism in the state,” state tourism minister Satpal Maharaj said.

“We have some holy sites and temples in the state which are linked with Ramayana. We will develop all of them and bring it under our initiative of Ramayana circuit to boost religious tourism in the state,” Satpal said.

“We have the Bharat and Shatrughan temple in Rishikesh where it is believed that the two met Lord Ram to urge him to return to Ayodhya from his sojourn in the forest. Apart from this, we also have Raghunath temple in Devprayag which was visited by Lord Ram. We will link all of these places and develop them. It will help the people know about the significance of Uttarakhand in Ramayana as well as attract them to visit,” said Maharaj.

He said that he had discussed the concept with Union minister of tourism Prahlad Singh Patel a few days ago. “I urged him to assess the possibility of developing similar circuits in all those states which have some connection with Ramayana. I also requested him to get a study done on the significance of Ramayana on some of the South East Asian countries where it is a part of their culture,” Maharaj added.