HRIDAY: Heritage City Development & Augmentation Yojana

What was HRIDAY?

HRIDAY (Heritage City Development & Augmentation Yojana) was a Central Sector scheme launched on 21 January 2015 by the then Ministry of Urban Development, now the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Its aim was to bring together urban planning, economic growth and heritage conservation so that the historic character of selected Indian cities was preserved even as their civic infrastructure was upgraded.

According to the Ministry, HRIDAY had a total outlay of Rs 500 crore and was fully funded by the central government. The mission ran for about four years and concluded on 31 March 2019. It is no longer operational, and this guide records it for reference rather than as a live scheme.

HRIDAY's distinctive idea was to treat heritage not as isolated monuments but as part of a living city. The mission therefore funded infrastructure in and around the core heritage zones. The streets, ghats, approaches and public spaces that people actually use, rather than only the protected monuments themselves.

Which cities did HRIDAY cover?

HRIDAY covered 12 heritage cities spread across the country:

• Ajmer (Rajasthan)
• Amritsar (Punjab)
• Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh)
• Badami (Karnataka)
• Dwarka (Gujarat)
• Gaya (Bihar)
• Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu)
• Mathura (Uttar Pradesh)
• Puri (Odisha)
• Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)
• Velankanni (Tamil Nadu)
• Warangal (Telangana)

Each city prepared a HRIDAY City Plan, and specific projects were taken up through Detailed Project Reports approved by the mission's National supported Committee. The Rs 500 crore outlay was allocated city-wise, with larger heritage cities receiving bigger shares.

Who was eligible under HRIDAY, and who could not apply?

HRIDAY was an urban infrastructure mission, not an individual benefit.

• The beneficiaries were the 12 identified cities, and funds were routed through state governments and urban local bodies (municipal corporations and municipalities) that owned and executed the projects.
• Individual citizens could not apply for a personal benefit under HRIDAY. There was no citizen application form, no cash transfer to residents, and no enrolment. Households, shopkeepers and traders in a heritage zone benefited only indirectly, through better streets, sanitation and public spaces.
• With the mission closed since 31 March 2019, no city, body or individual can apply now. Any reference suggesting that HRIDAY is still accepting applications is out of date.

How to apply for HRIDAY funding (historical institutional route)

This process operated only while the mission was live, between 2015 and 2019. It is described here so readers understand how HRIDAY worked; it is not a route that is open today.

1. The Ministry of Urban Development identified the 12 heritage cities and set city-wise allocations within the Rs 500 crore outlay.
2. Each city, through its urban local body and state government, prepared a HRIDAY City Plan identifying heritage assets and infrastructure needs.
3. Cities prepared Detailed Project Reports for individual works, which were appraised and approved by the mission's National supported Committee.
4. Approved projects were executed by the municipal body and monitored by the state and the central mission directorate until the mission closed in

What did HRIDAY fund?

Within the heritage zones, HRIDAY financed civic and tourism-linked infrastructure, including:

• Sanitation — public toilets, drainage and solid-waste facilities.
• Roads, walkways and last-mile connectivity to heritage sites.
• Public transport access and parking near heritage cores.
• Tourist facilities: signage, wayfinding, drinking water and rest areas.
• Heritage asset revitalisation, restoration of the surroundings of temples, ghats, forts and historic streetscapes.

What happened after HRIDAY closed?

HRIDAY was not extended beyond March 2019. Heritage- and tourism-linked infrastructure is now supported through other central programmes. The Ministry of Tourism runs PRASHAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive) for pilgrimage and heritage destinations, while the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs continues to fund urban infrastructure through its broader missions. Cities that seek heritage-linked funding today should approach these current programmes rather than HRIDAY.

Where to get information

Because HRIDAY is closed, there is no live helpline or application portal. For records and any legacy queries, contact the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs at mohua.gov.in, which administered the mission. For current heritage-tourism funding, refer to the Ministry of Tourism's PRASHAD scheme.

Who is eligible

HRIDAY is closed, so this checklist is for reference only, it explains who could ever draw on the scheme and who could not, whether the mission was live or not.

Could receive HRIDAY funding (while the mission was open, 2015 to 2019):

• Urban local bodies (municipal corporations or municipalities) of the 12 named cities: Ajmer, Amritsar, Amaravati, Badami, Dwarka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velankanni and Warangal.
• State governments of those 12 cities, acting as the intermediary that routed funds and cleared Detailed Project Reports to the municipal body.
• Only projects located within, or serving direct access to, the notified heritage core zone of one of these 12 cities.

Could not receive HRIDAY funding, at any point:

• Individual citizens, residents, shopkeepers or traders. There was never a personal application form or a direct cash benefit.
• Any city outside the 12 named cities, no matter how significant its own heritage assets.
• Private trusts, NGOs, or religious bodies applying on their own account; a project had to be routed through the city's urban local body.
• Any applicant today. Since the mission closed on 31 March 2019, there is no live eligibility category left; nobody, city or individual, can newly qualify.

How to check your application status

There is no application status to check today, since HRIDAY stopped accepting or processing proposals after 31 March 2019.

• No citizen-facing status page ever existed. Because HRIDAY funded municipal infrastructure rather than individual beneficiaries, there was no personal application ID, login, or SMS-based tracking system for residents to check.
• During the mission (2015 to 2019), the only "status" that existed was at the project level: whether a city's Detailed Project Report had been appraised and cleared by the HRIDAY National Empowered Committee, and whether the cleared work had been released to the municipal body. This was tracked administratively between the Ministry, the state government and the urban local body, not through a public portal.
• If you need historical records of a specific city's HRIDAY project (for example, to confirm whether a particular street or ghat restoration was funded under it), the only route is to contact the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (mohua.gov.in) directly, or approach the concerned municipal corporation's urban planning or heritage cell, since city-level project files sit with them.
• Do not expect a response through any HRIDAY-branded helpline or tracking number. None is listed as active; the scheme's own page notes there is no live helpline, only the Ministry's general contact channel.

Common reasons for rejection

HRIDAY never rejected individual applications, since none were accepted from individuals. The rejections that did happen were at the city and project level, during the 2015 to 2019 window. These are worth recording because they explain gaps in what actually got built:

• City not on the approved list of 12. Several cities with genuine heritage claims lobbied for inclusion after the mission was launched but could not be added, since the Rs 500 crore outlay and city list were fixed at launch in January 2015. Fix: none available now; such cities must instead look to the Ministry of Tourism's PRASHAD scheme or general urban missions, which remain open.
• Project sited outside the notified heritage core zone. Proposals for infrastructure work outside the boundary the city itself had marked as its heritage core were turned back for revision, since HRIDAY's mandate was tied specifically to that zone. Fix (historical): project reports had to be redrawn to fall within the notified core, or resubmitted under a different, non-heritage municipal budget line.
• Detailed Project Report submitted without corresponding approval in the city's own HRIDAY City Plan. The National Empowered Committee appraised DPRs against the city plan it had already approved; a DPR proposing work not anticipated in that plan needed the city plan itself amended first, which delayed or stalled clearance. Fix (historical): align every DPR to a heritage-linked line item already present in the approved City Plan before submission.
• Incomplete technical or cost justification in the DPR. Reports that did not adequately document costing, ownership of land or heritage-asset linkage were sent back by the appraisal committee rather than cleared outright. Fix (historical): route DPRs through the state's urban development department for a technical review before sending them up for central appraisal.
• Missed the mission's own closing window. Any project not appraised and cleared before HRIDAY concluded on 31 March 2019 simply lapsed with the mission; there was no grace period or extension. This is now permanent and cannot be fixed, the scheme has no reopening mechanism.