The Modi government has started work for the development of ‘Parshuram Kund’, a Hindu pilgrimage site on the Brahmputra plateau in the lower reaches of the Lohit river in Arunachal Pradesh.
The project costing Rs 37.88 crore was sanctioned under the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) Scheme of the Ministry of Tourism, said a senior officer of the Tourism Minister here on Thursday.
The ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) is a Central Sector Scheme launched in 2014-15 with complete financial assistance by the Government of India. It was targeted to develop tourism infrastructure to harness pilgrimage and heritage tourism destinations for its direct and multiplier effect upon employment generation and economic development.
Under the scheme, the Tourism Ministry would develop world-class infrastructure with special emphasis on Tourist Facilities including Tourist Facilitation Centers, way-side amenities Parking, Public convenience, Illumination and Sound and Light Shows, the Tourism Ministry said.
Union Tourism Minister Kishan on Thursday laid the foundation stone for the Kund. Parshuram Kund is 21 km north of Tezu in the Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is dedicated to sage Parshuram. It attracts pilgrims from Nepal and from various parts of the country. According to a rough estimate, nearly 70,000 devotees and sadhus take a holy dip in its water each year on the occasion of Makar Sankranti in the month of January.
The site was established by a sadhu and was in existence until the 1950 Assam Earthquake that shook the whole of the North-East and the kund was completely covered. A very strong current is now flowing over the original site of the kund but massive boulders have in a mysterious way embedded themselves in a circular formation in the river bed thus forming another kund in place of the old.