The National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) is a central sector scheme of the Government of India. The HRIDAY scheme was launched on 21 January 2015 to bring together economic growth, urban planning and heritage conservation in an inclusive manner. It was launched to preserve the heritage of cities. 

The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) launched the HRIDAY scheme with a focus on the holistic development of identified cities classified as heritage cities. It seeks to revitalise and preserve the soul of the heritage cities for reflecting their unique character and encourage an aesthetically accessible, informative, appealing and secured environment.

The HRIDAY scheme supports the development of civic infrastructure projects that include revitalising urban infrastructure for areas around the heritage cities’ religious, heritage, tourism, and cultural assets. These initiatives include the development of sanitation, water supply, drainage, approach roads, waste management, street lights, footpaths, electricity wiring, landscaping, tourist conveniences and citizen services.

Objectives of HRIDAY Scheme

The main objective of the HRIDAY scheme is to preserve the character and soul of the heritage cities and provide an inclusive heritage linked urban development by exploring different avenues by involving the private sector. Some of the specific objectives of the HRIDAY scheme are as follows:

• Development, planning and implementation of heritage sensitive infrastructure
• Infrastructure provisioning and service delivery in the historic cities core areas
• Revitalise and preserve heritage where the tourists can connect directly with the cities unique character
• Document and develop a heritage asset inventory of the cities – cultural, living, natural and built heritage as a basis for growth, urban planning, service provision and delivery
• Enhancement and implementation of basic services delivery with a focus on sanitation services like toilets, public conveniences, street lights, water taps with the usage latest technologies in improving amenities/tourist facilities
• Enhancement of local capacity for inclusive heritage-based industry 
• Create effective linkages between cultural facilities, tourism, conservation of built and natural heritage
• Urban heritage maintenance and adaptive rehabilitation, including appropriate technology for historic building retrofitting 
• Manage and establish effective Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for adaptive urban rehabilitation

Components of HRIDAY Scheme

The HRIDAY scheme broadly focuses on four theme areas for revitalising and reviving the soul of the heritage cities, which are:

• Physical infrastructure
• Institutional infrastructure
• Economic infrastructure
• Social infrastructure

The indicative list of HRIDAY components are as follows: 

• Heritage mapping and documentation leading to the heritage management plan 
• Heritage revitalisation linked to service provision 
• City knowledge/information skill development and management 

Coverage and Scope of HRIDAY Scheme

The HRIDAY scheme will focus on the development of the following twelve heritage cities:

• Amravati
• Ajmer
• Badami
• Amritsar
• Gaya
• Dwarka
• Mathura
• Kanchipuram
• Varanasi
• Puri
• Warangal
• Velankanni

Implementation of HRIDAY Scheme

The HRIDAY scheme is a central sector scheme with 100% funding from the Central Government. The heritage cities need to prepare a heritage management plan and develop Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for identified projects to avail assistance under the HRIDAY scheme. 

The National Mission Directorate or The City Mission Directorate through Public Works Organisation (PWO), Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Central Public Sector Unit (CPSU), State parastatal or Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) of repute may develop the Heritage Management Plan (HMP) and DPRs.

The PWOs, SPVs, CPSUs, State parastatal or NGO’s of repute will execute the projects. The executing agencies by MoUD will allocate funds on the recommendation of the Mission Directorate. The HRIDAY heritage cities project duration is four years, from December 2014 to 31 March 2019.

The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is designated as the national project management unit for the HRIDAY Scheme and will function as a secretariat for the Mission Directorate. The City Project Management Unit (PMU) will be procured by the National Mission Directorate and will function as a secretariat to the City Mission Directorate. The HRIDAY scheme completed four years in 2019 with a funds outlay of Rs.6,85,758 crore.