OREANDA-NEWS. The Union Ministry of Tourism (MOT) provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) up to an amount of Rs.25.00 crore for Mega Destinations and Rs.50.00 crore for Mega Circuits respectively, under Centrally Sponsored Scheme viz. Project/Infrastructure Development for Destinations and Circuits (PIDDC) to various State Governments and Union Territory Administrations prioritized in consultation with them, as per the Scheme Guidelines, inter-se priority, liquidation of pending utilization certificates against the funds released earlier and adherence to the scheme guidelines.

In addition to the above, five tourist circuits around specific themes to be created under a new Central Sector Scheme announced in the Union Budget 2014-15 and an amount of Rs.500.00 crore has been earmarked for this purpose in the current financial year.

The following are the Mega Destinations/Circuits Identified/Sanctioned for the State of West Bengal:

Sl. No.

Name of the Project

Year

Amount Sanctioned

Amount Released

1.

Ganga Heritage River Cruise Circuit

2008-09

2042.35

1021.18

2.

Dooars (Jalpaiguri District)

2012-13

4668.46

2334.23

3.

Digha-Udaypur-Shankarpur-Mandarmai-Tajpur-Janput

2014-15

Identified

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge), Dr. Mahesh Sharma in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.