90 UP temples to be beautified as tourist spots

Lucknow: Temple tourism in Uttar Pradesh is set to get a major fillip with the Yogi Adityanath government planning to beautify more than 90 temple tourist destinations.

All these destinations will have improved infrastructure including better roads, hotels, and bus connectivity.

According to principal secretary tourism, Avanish Awasthi, these temple tourist destinations will be a part of the spiritual tourist circuit in the state and those having historic significance will get light and sound shows as well.

“We propose to put up interpretation centre, solar lights and other tourist facilities in these places. Community centres, parking space toilets, drinking water facilities are also on the list,” he said.

Little known temples that are locally popular are being included in the list. For instance, the Lav Kush Ashram, Valmiki Ashram, Anandeshwar temple and Tulsi Udyan in Kanpur have been included. They are mainly temples dedicated to local deities and prominent ashrams.

Temples in Bhadohi, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Sitapur, Sonebhadra, Mahoba, Deoria, Fatehpur, Aligarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Ballia, Mau, Meerut, Bijnore, Barabanki, Baghpat, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Shamli, Pratapgarh, Aligarh and Bulandshahr are in the list.

A senior tourism official said that while major pilgrim centres like Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi were being developed under another scheme, this scheme focused mainly on temples that had local significance and were not very popular.

As an example, the samadhi of Kabir in Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar also has a ‘mazaar’ belonging to the 15th century mystic poet who was equally popular among Hindus and Muslims.

Legend has it that when he died, Hindus and Muslims fought over their right to his body. His body turned into a heap of flowers which was then equally divided between the two communities who built a samadhi and a mazaar.