HRIDAY Scheme Full Form

What is the full form of the HRIDAY Scheme?

Hriday Scheme full form is Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme. The national heritage tells the story of the past. Climatic conditions and anthropogenic damage are becoming increasingly threatening to these sites.
To prevent damage to our heritage and boost tourism, the Ministry of Urban Development launched its HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) scheme. This program aims to revitalize the heritage soul of India and preserve its historic cities.

This Story also Contains

1. Scheme Statement
2. Objectives Of The HRIDAY Scheme
3. HRIDAY Scheme Cities List

The HRIDAY program or National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana were launched on 21st January 2015 by the Ministry of Urban Development, India. Its aim is to bring together urban planning, economic growth, and heritage preservation in a comprehensive manner to preserve India's heritage character.The program aims to support the development of important cultural heritage infrastructure projects. This includes revitalizing urban infrastructure related to cultural assets such as monuments, ghats, and temples, as well as revitalizing certain intangible assets. These initiatives include the development of sanitation facilities, roads, public transport, parking lots, citizen services, information kiosks, and more. The government has provided a budget of Rs 500 crore to complete this project within 27 months.

Scheme Statement

“Preserve and revitalize the soul of the heritage city to reflect the city’s unique character by encouraging aesthetically appealing, accessible, informative & secured environment. To undertake strategic and planned development of heritage cities aiming at the improvement in overall quality of life with a specific focus on sanitation, security, tourism, heritage revitalization and livelihoods retaining the city’s cultural identity.”

(Reference: Ministry of housing and urban development.

Objectives Of The HRIDAY Scheme

The official statement of the HRIDAY program sets the following quantifiable goals for the urban development of historic towns :

• The infrastructure of the core area of the historic city.

• Preserve and restore heritage sites so that tourists can connect with the unique nature of each historic city.

• Creating an inventory of the city's cultural assets documenting the building, culture, life , and natural heritage as a basis for urban planning, growth, planning services, and their provision.

• Improvement of basic services with an emphasis on hygiene such as public toilets and faucets, security such as street lights, and development of tourist facilities.

• Create links between cultural institutions and tourism, with heritage preservation and capacity building of heritage-based local industries.

• Adaptive preservation of urban heritage, including restoration with appropriate techniques to refurbish historic buildings with modern comforts.

• This goal also includes building public-private partnerships for the preservation and management of historic buildings.

• Promotion of economic activity to improve employment opportunities for people living in and around cultural heritage sites. This includes developing their skills and giving them access to public and cultural spaces.

• Make the city profitable with the latest ICT tools and equip it with the latest security devices such as CCTV.

• Increase access to heritage sites by improving roads, adopting universal design, GIS mapping historic sites, and building digital heritage records.

HRIDAY Scheme Cities List

State and central governments and the Ministry of Culture selected 12 cities as part of the Heritage Cities Development and Enhancement Yojana.

Individuals should know that city residents have employment opportunities through National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana. Additionally, the government will preserve the culture and heritage of these cities.

Nevertheless, the selected cities are-

• Amritsar

• Ajmer

• Amravati

• Gaya

• Badami

• Dwarka

• Velankanni

• Kanchipuram

• Warangal

• Mathura

• Puri

• Varanasi

Duration And Funding

HRIDAY is a vital sector program 100% funded by the Government of India. The duration of this program was from December 2014 to March 2019. The program as expected was implemented in mission mode. The total expenditure of the program was Rs.500 crore.