BJP realizes that the tourism sector needs a clear plan for growth, and BJP commits to initiate a mission mode project to create 50 tourist circuits that are affordable and built around themes… This will lead to creation of infrastructure and employment around each tourist circuit.

The 2014 manifesto's tourism commitment names a number and a method: "BJP realizes that the tourism sector needs a clear plan for growth, and BJP commits to initiate a mission mode project to create 50 tourist circuits that are affordable and built around themes." It adds what the circuits are for — "creation of infrastructure and employment around each tourist circuit".

The scheme arrived in January 2015 as Swadesh Darshan, with an initial outlay of ₹500 crore and 15 themed circuits rather than 50 — Himalayan, Buddhist, Coastal, Desert, Tribal, Ramayana, Heritage, Sufi and others. Between 2014-15 and 2018-19, 76 projects worth ₹5,455.69 crore were sanctioned. The CAG's performance audit of it, tabled on 9 August 2023, covers the scheme from inception to March 2022.

Its headline finding is one sentence long: "Out of 76 projects sanctioned by the Ministry, no project was completed within the stipulated time frame." Of the 14 the audit examined in detail, eight finished between 22 and 47 months late and six were still unfinished.

The manifesto had promised "a clear plan for growth", and this is where the audit is most damaging, because it addresses the plan rather than the execution. The scheme was launched "despite objection of the Planning Commission/Ministry of Finance", against a Standing Finance Committee recommendation to merge overlapping schemes instead, and "without conducting any feasibility study" — which the audit ties directly to "poor identification of sites and deficiencies in execution". No national or state level plan was prepared before launch. And the documents that were supposed to decide which projects got built — the detailed perspective plans for each circuit — were never made for 14 of the 15 circuits, so "the Ministry did not have any long-term vision/policy for implementing the Scheme." The rules were rewritten 15 times by August 2020.

Approvals outran authority. Having launched with ₹500 crore, "the amount sanctioned had exceeded ₹4,000 crore by 2016-17" — and it was sanctioned "without obtaining approval of the Cabinet, which was necessary for sanctioning projects costing above ₹1,000 crore."

The project-level failures follow from the planning ones. All 14 project reports examined were prepared "without site survey", included "sites without land and other clearances", and lacked tourist traffic surveys, gap analysis and maintenance plans. Money was released on the states' written undertaking that land was clear, but "actual availability of land was not ensured before release of funds" — so in 13 of the 14 projects, 149 components had to be dropped between 35 and 69 months after sanction. Works were awarded 11 to 58 months late, some "without relevant sanctions", some "without tendering, or on nomination basis".

Money leaked at both ends. ₹19.73 crore of undue benefit reached contractors through irregular payments and mobilisation advances, states spent ₹51.56 crore "wasteful/excess/unfruitful/inadmissible", and because no instruction to open interest-bearing accounts was issued for more than five and a half years, 10 of 13 states never remitted ₹50.06 crore of interest earned on scheme funds. Utilisation certificates were late or absent in 47 of the 76 projects.

Two findings speak to whether the promised infrastructure and employment could last. The apex body meant to steer the scheme, the National Steering Committee chaired by the tourism minister, met six times between January 2015 and March 2022 against 29 meetings due. And what was built was not kept: "no arrangements for effective upkeep and maintenance of assets were made", with "created facilities not being put into operation" and infrastructure deteriorating. The rural circuit, one of the 15 themes, received 0.73 per cent of all scheme spending.

Circuits were created, and some projects were finished. But the promise was 50 circuits built in mission mode on a clear plan, and the audited record is 15 circuits, no plan for 14 of them, and not a single project of 76 delivered on time. Our verdict is not supported.