Maharashtra Government has sanctioned Rs 14 crore for development of Ramtek under the pilgrimage places development programme. This comes as a boost to development of the temple town, which is known for Shri Ram Temple (Gadh Mandir), and several other sites. Adv Ashish Jaiswal, MLA from Ramtek, had been following up the matter of grant of funds for development of the town. On September 25 earlier this year, Adv Jaiswal had a discussion with Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister, regarding development of Ramtek from pilgrimage point of view.

 

Also, he had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister seeking funds. Besides, Adv Ashish Jaiswal also submitted a detailed proposal to Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister, and Eknath Shinde, Urban Development Minister. He followed up the matter with the ministers and the departments concerned. Finally, on December 16, State Government issued an order sanctioning Rs 14 crore for development of Ramtek. Previously, the then MLA D Mallikarjun Reddy had submitted a proposal seeking Rs 200 crore for development of Ramtek as pilgrimage place. However, then, State Government sanctioned only Rs 7 crore.

 

Ramtek is well-known for several sites of religious importance. Shri Ram Temple (Gadh Mandir) is the most popular site of importance from tourism and pilgrimage points of view. Besides, there are other places namely Kalidas Smarak, Ambala lake, Jain Temple. The other tourist attractions in the vicinity are Khindsi lake, Nagardhan fort, Mansar excavation site etc. With the State Government sanctioning Rs 14 crore for development of pilgrimage sites in particular, it remains to be seen what further steps are taken for development of tourism sites also.