Apr 14, Kathmandu: On the first day of New Year 2080, the activity of domestic and foreign tourists is increasing in the natural and religious tourist areas of Madhesh Province.

There is the movement of Indian citizens in border areas and domestic tourists in other areas. In particular, thousands of citizens from the neighboring country of India and other districts of the province are participating in the fair to see the flowers that are said to bloom only on Baisakh 1 in Siraha's Salhes flower garden.

Similarly, the world-famous Janaki Temple of Janakpurdham, Dhanushadham, the man-made Bharat Lake of Sarlahi, and other areas are seeing increased traffic. Not only during the New Year, but the main religious shrines, natural lakes, and scenic spots in all the eight districts here are also full of excitement throughout the twelve months.

There is a lot of potential in various fields of tourism in Madhes province, but due to a lack of a 'Tourism Master Plan' for planned development, proper development of religious, cultural, natural, and historical areas has not been done. Due to that reason, it was not possible to get proper benefits from the tourists coming here.

Before the country went into a regional structure, the central government could not pay attention to planned development, improvement of tourist spots, and publicity for the development of tourism here. Although it has been almost six years since the construction of the provincial structure, even the provincial government has not been able to formulate a master plan.

Vishal Ghimire, secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Forests of Madhe Province, also said that there is no master plan for the construction of tourism infrastructure and other activities. He said that even though the state government has been working on a tourism master plan in the past to build tourism infrastructure and promote tourism in coordination with the federation, state, local level, and even the private sector, it has not been realized.

He said that initiatives are being taken to improve the main religious, cultural, and tourist sites, build physical structures and increase internal and external tourism activities. There are many possibilities for tourism. There are all the original things related to tourism based on natural beauty and Mithila period civilization from the religious cultural areas. We all feel the need to create a development blueprint for its development and protection', Secretary Ghimire said, 'We are creating a master plan from the provincial level to work in an integrated and one-door system covering all levels, but since the Tourism Act has not come, we are requesting the government to manage it.'

Provincial Assembly member Ram Ashish Yadav said that they requested the departmental minister in charge of the tourism sector in the first term and the stakeholders to move forward with the plan to properly develop the tourism potential of Madhes province and get maximum benefits from it, but they did not listen.

In the past, the federal government could not work in a planned manner. Therefore, despite the potential, tourism activities could not increase significantly in Madhes province. Now that there are provincial and local governments, they can develop their areas in a planned way', Yadav, who is also a conservation activist, said, to revive the original culture, religious traditions, and religious pilgrimage sites of Madhes, an environment-friendly development plan is necessary taking into account the nature and culture here. For that, the government should immediately create a tourism act and its master plan.

MP Manish Jha, who has played the role of provincial coordinator in the year 2020, said that even though 40 tourism destinations in Madhes province have been identified and submitted to the government under his leadership, concrete activities have not yet been planned in that area.

As much as the central government has done in other provinces of the country, it has not invested in Madhes province in the same way and there is no plan to do so. The provincial government is also stuck in piecemeal planning of tourism development, Jha said, "Infrastructural construction, inter-provincial tour exchange, tourism circuit construction work has not been paid attention to in a planned manner." I have given information about all the measures in this matter, but it did not work. There is no plan to engage people coming from outside in Janakpurdham and other areas in tourism activities for a few days. The citizens within the province have not been able to recognize the possibilities here.

Jha pointed out the need to create an environment that can contribute to the tourism development of Madhes by connecting the three levels of government and the private sector and urged everyone to create a master plan and create transformative sustainable infrastructure.

The federal government is currently implementing the strategic action plan of the Nepal Tourism Decade 2023-2032 for the revival of the tourism sector. It is said that 10 years will be celebrated as 10 separate festivals in the strategy brought with the plan to bring 3.5 million foreign tourists to Nepal by the year 2032 and create 1 million new jobs in the tourism sector during the same period. Under that, the year 2028 has been set as the goal of running a tourism campaign based on Ramayana in Madhes province.

The government of Madhes state has also put forward the policy of developing tourist spots for the promotion of tourism in the policies and programs of the current financial year. In, it is said that a long-term policy will be taken to develop and promote religious, cultural, historical, and natural tourism areas as "regional tourism infrastructure, the basis of internal tourism", and at least one tourist destination will be developed in each district by creating a regional master plan.

Lal Babu Yadav, Planning Officer of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Forests informed that the budget of Rs.1 billion and 150 million has been allocated for the development of tourism in the current financial year and that plans of around 180 million rupees have been implemented in all the eight districts to develop one district and one tourist destination.

The provincial government has started work on the development of tourism by developing a sustainable and reliable tourism infrastructure in Madhes. For sustainable tourism development, efforts are being made to advance the work of creating tourism master plans and laws. We expect that concrete work will be done for the development of the tourism potential of Madhes province in the budget, policies, and programs of the next financial year, said Planning Officer Yadav.

Madhes have various areas of tourism potential including religious, cultural, para tourism, lifestyle, and original civilization, but there is a need for their promotion and planned development. The world-famous Janaki temple and Dhanushadham, Sahlesh Phulbari, Rouja Mazar, Jaleshwarnath, Simraungadh, Gadhimai, Chinnamasta, Kangalini, Parasnath, Nanthar, Bharat Lake, Bagmati Lake, Koshi Tappu, Parsa National Park, which are famous for their religious faith and natural beauty, are also master plans. Due to the lack of development, tourism activities have not been able to increase in terms of economic benefits. Experts say that the provincial government should pay attention to this.