Tumakuru : Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Bharat Lal Meena has said that a heritage hub will be set up on 1,200 acres of land identified near Ujjanakunte, Maranagere in the district and Kariyali villages in Hiriyur taluk of Chitradurga district.

The hub will host activities related to culture, art, heritage, science and technology among others, Meena said chairing a meeting convened to discuss the nitty-gritty of the project at deputy commissioner’s office here on Wednesday evening.

The principal secretary of Higher Education department said that in the first phase geographical map of the proposed hub will be prepared. “The hub will be developed on the model of Pilikula Nisargadhama in Dakshina Kannada,” Meena said.

The models depicting the art, culture, food style, crops among other things pertaining to the state will be on display at the heritage hub, he said.
The heritage hub, under the chairmanship of deputy commissioner, has been registered with the competent authority. The government has already sanctioned Rs 2 crore for the said project, Meena said.

He instructed the officials, in the meeting, to formulate a project on water storage for the hub and start planting trees as part of the first phase of the project. Meena suggested the officials to mobilise resources from gram panchayats, zilla panchayat and the Forest department and start the work immediately.

In a bid to spot and nurture the sporting talent available in rural areas, an indoor and outdoor stadiums will be built in the heritage hub, the additional secretary said.

The hub will have a market place where the growers can sell their produce to the buyers directly. The hub will also have theme parks on science, energy, food courts, yatri nivas among other facilities, Meena explained.

Meena suggested the assistant director of Kannada and Culture to make arrangement to provide information on festivals of each district in the state in heritage hub.

K Chinnappagowda, Vice-Chancellor, Karnataka Janapada University, said, “The traditional vocations in the state are dying. In order to inject some life into the traditional vocations, models of them have been put on display at Pilikula Nisargadhama. Similar initiative will be taken up in the proposed heritage hub too,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner K P Mohan Raj, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K G Shantaram, Addl SP G B Manjunath, Hiriyur Tahsildar Rangegowda, Sira Tahsildar Honnashymegowda and others were present.