Promoting tourism in the national Capital, chief minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday announced allocation of ₹117 crore for the tourism sector in 2025-26 Delhi Budget, which is over 77% rise from last year’s allotment of ₹66 crore.
The CM announced that boat tours in the Yamuna will be organised from northeast Delhi’s Sonia Vihar to Jagatpur Shani Mandir. “An MoU for the same has been signed with the Inland Waterways Authority of India and Delhi Development Authority. The project will be carried out on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model,” she said during the speech.
Pointing towards the aim to culturally enrich and promote Delhi as a film destination, she said the city has a potential to host an international level film festival this year. “We have allocated ₹30 crore for this purpose,” she said.
The War Memorial, Kartavya Path, Prime Minister Museum and New Parliament house, she said, will be promoted as new tourism sites and will be put together and developed as a new “tourist circuit”.
To promote tourism and branding Delhi, an outlay of ₹25 crore has been proposed, she informed.
Further, the CM announced that an annual winter festival with cultural shows, food festivals and musical concerts will be organised in Delhi.
To target and promote hidden talent among students, young professionals and self-taught artists of Delhi, Gupta announced a Talent Hunt Scheme, the main objective of which will be to provide the artists platform, encourage creativity, and promote cultural heritage. A fund of ₹5 crore has been proposed for this.
Additionally, to boost regional languages, budget allocation for Maithili-Bhojpuri Academy has been proposed to be increased from ₹3.50 crore previously to ₹ 6.30 crore this year.
A total of ₹139 crore has been proposed for various schemes/programmes/projects under the Department of Art, Culture and Languages.
Notably, no specific allocation was made for continuing the “Mukhya Mantri Teerthyatra Yojna” that was launched in 2019 by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government wherein free pilgrimages were organised for the elderly.
