NEW DELHI: In its bid to provide high quality public convenience and entertainment facilities to visitors, the tourism ministry will develop Wayside Amenities in five major tourist zones in Buddhist circuits and two Ramayana circuits. Among the Buddhist circuits identified is Sarnath (Varanasi) and in the Ramayana circuit, Faizabad.

The road transport and highways ministry will transfer the land parcels to the tourism ministry for the next 30 years. “The tourism ministry will develop them and run them for the lease period. Subsequently, the land parcels with developed facilities will be returned to the road transport and highways ministry,” a source familiar with the development said.

Sources said the government-owned National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) will build and manage the facilities for tourism ministry. After successful implementation of these pilots, the government will take up more such locations.

The wayside amenities will include restaurants, resting place, parking areas, play zones, public conveniences, space for ATMs besides motor repair facilities.

At present, there are very few complexes along national highways, which cater to the requirement of tourists and commuters.

To meet this requirement the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already announced its policy to Develop Wayside Amenities for two types of facilities – highway nest and highway village. “We are getting bids for these facilities and expect the works to start soon,” an NHAI official said.

While NHAI will give its land parcels to private players there is also provision for private land owners to develop their land for wayside amenities. NHAI will allow access to these facilities from highways and help land owners get the land use changed from “agriculture” to “commercial”category.