By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Feb. 14: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has selected 200 projects from across the country under its programme to develop infrastructure in various tourism destinations of Nepal on a cost-sharing basis with the local and provincial governments.
Of these, 55 are from Province 1, 23 from Province 2, 31 from Bagmati, 23 from Gandaki, 25 from Lumbini, 17 from Karnali and 26 from Sudur Pashchim Province.
The ministry had asked the local levels to submit proposals for the development and promotion of tourism infrastructure and tourism-associated products in various overlooked tourist destinations in their areas back in August. Based on this call, MoCTCA received 713 proposals – 10 from provinces, nine from metropolitan cities, 10 from sub-metropolitan cities, 307 from municipalities and 377 from rural municipalities. Out of these projects, 200 were selected.
The selected projects include parks, picnic spots, temples, monasteries, roads, foot trails, cycle tracks, shopping malls and museums, among others.
According to the details released by the ministry, the federal government will invest a total of Rs. 6.80 billion for the implementation of these projects. In addition to the federal government’s investment, rural municipalities are required to contribute 30 per cent of the total cost, municipalities 35 per cent, sub-metropolitans 40 per cent, metropolitans 50 per cent and provinces 50 per cent.
The government had previously introduced the ‘100 destinations’ programme for the development of tourism infrastructure but it was not a big success. The ministry then had concluded that a lack of ownership of the local levels also contributed to its ineffectiveness.