HRIDAY – Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana
CULTURE –ARCHITECTURE
2 NOVEMBER 2025
- National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) was launched on 21 January 2015 with the aim of bringing together urban planning, economic growth and heritage conservation in an inclusive manner to preserve the heritage character of each Heritage City.
- The Scheme supported development of core heritage infrastructure projects including revitalization of linked urban infrastructure for heritage assets such as monuments, Ghats, temples etc. along with reviving certain intangible assets.
- These initiatives included development of sanitation facilities, roads, public transportation & parking, citizen services, information kiosks etc.
- With a duration of four years (completing in November 2018) and a total outlay of ₹5 billion (US$ 63,000,000), the Scheme is set to be implemented in 13 identified Cities namely, Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwarka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velankanni, Vellore and Warangal.
- HRIDAY scheme ended in 2019 merged into PRASAD scheme.
- The PRASAD – ‘Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive’ scheme was launched in the year 2014-2015 under the Ministry of Tourism.
- This scheme focuses on developing and identifying pilgrimage sites across India for enriching the religious tourism experience.
- The growth of domestic tourism hugely depends on pilgrimage tourism.
