Why in news? For the smooth implementation of its initiative under Prime Minister (PM) Gati Shakti’s programme, the Ministry of tourism will do a mapping of all major tourist destinations and attractions.

Highlights:

• The mapping details and all the relevant information such as availability of accommodation and transit hubs around the tourist sites will be added to Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) for which the ministry will set up a dedicated division—Gati Shakti Cell.
• The efforts will be made to ensure standardisation, revalidation, cleaning and rationalisation of the data are uploaded on the NMP portal, which is for seamless collaboration with other departments, states and UTs .
• The ministry is in the process of formulation of the Cell and will appoint a Technical Support Unit (TSU), a professional agency, to harness the potential of the Gati Shakti portal for the overall development of the Tourism sector.

Function of the Gati Shakti Cell

• The tourism ministry will use data uploaded on the portal in its decision-making process to better visualise, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects and the growth of the tourism sector through the GIS platform.
• The Unit will prepare ‘Tourism NMP Strategy’ covering the broad topics of strategy and action plan for Integration and mapping of major Tourist destinations.
• It will also coordinate with stakeholders such as state governments, union territories, Central ministries, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)

How is it implemented?

• The mapping of tourist destinations will involve the delineation of the destination’s impact area using administrative and physical boundaries encompassing tourist attractions, accommodation units, and major transit hubs–entry and exit points.
• Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) is a national agency of the Gujarat government to provide services and solutions in implementing map-based GeoSpatial Information Systems.

Tourism NMP Strategy:

• Will cover broad topics of strategy and action plan for integration and mapping of major destinations

Gati Shakti data will be used in:

• Decision-making
• To better visualise, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects
• Analyse the growth of the tourism sector

About PM Gati Shakti NMP

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched PM Gati Shakti NMP in October 2021 for multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones.
• It is a digital platform to bring 16 ministries together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.