The ministry of tourism (MoT) has identified 50 circuits for development of tourism. These circuits/ destinations cover major and relevant tourist places and attractions and have a judicious mix of culture, heritage, spiritualism and ecotourism to give tourists a holistic perspective of the country. Port Blair-Neil Havelock- Little Andaman (Andaman and Nicobar), Kashmir Circuit (Jammu and Kashmir), Desert circuit (Rajasthan), Nature Tourism Circuit (West Bengal), Braj-Agra Circuit (Uttar Pradesh), Gangtok (Sikkim) are the circuits identified circuits among others.
The ministry has formulated a plan scheme Swadesh Darshan for integrated development of tourist circuits around specific themes. The five circuits identified under this scheme are: Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit and North-East Circuit.
The ministry of tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to various State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations for various tourism projects prioritised every year in consultation with them subject to availability of funds, inter-se priority, liquidation of pending utilisation certificates against the funds released earlier and adherence to the scheme guidelines.
In 2012-13, a total of 136 projects were sanctioned to the states and an amount of INR929 crores was sanctioned to them for these projects. In 2013-14, the number of projects sanctioned to the states was 261 and an amount of INR1801 crores was sanctioned to them. In 2014-15 (till December, 2014) a total of 53 projects were sanctioned to the states and a sum of INR333 crores was sanctioned to them for these projects.