HRIDAY And Smart City Mission Initiatives: A Tale Of Two Historic Indian Pilgrim Cities - Puri And Madurai

Abstract

The process of development in a historic city majorly superimposed by multiple government schemes has become common in the Indian context in the last decade. Historic cities of India, known for their cultural, religious, architectural, and spiritual values are being converted into social hubs for tourism by replacing their original identity and values. With these rising issues, in 2015 Government of India with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Urban Development formulated two national schemes interfacing and counter-depending which serve as guidelines for developing the heritage cities. (i) Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and (ii) Smart City Mission are being implemented in the development of various Indian religious heritage cities. The two missions aim to uplift and promote the historical sites by implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in pilgrimage cities making them more sustainable in coherence with the roots of Indian culture, traditions, and society. This paper will focus on the objectives of HRIDAY and Smart City Mission with documentation of the interventions being done in the heritage pilgrimage sites of Puri (Orissa) and Madurai (Tamil-Nadu), following the analysis of outcomes with relevance to the historic value and identity of the city. Further study is conducted on the achievements of social, economic, environmental, and cultural sustainability based on the results of survey as per the targets and indicators of SDG 11-Sustainable cities and communities.