Bhubaneswar, Feb. 13: The Odisha government is taking up several programmes to promote the Buddhist circuit in the state.

The programme of the state government includes a master plan for Dhauli, which is famous for its peace pagoda built through an Indo-Japanese collaboration and stands as a symbolic witness to the Kalinga war.

The Asokan edict is also situated on the foothills of the Dhauli hills. Though nearly 10 lakh tourists, including 6,000 foreign visitors, visit the peace pagoda every year, lack of recreational facilities for them has made it a not-so-special monument.

Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda today hinted at a mega temple-cum-meditation centre for all, a peace park and ropeway, so that tourists would never feel neglected.

'We have started land acquisition for the programme as the peace park work is running behind schedule. We will make Dhauli a major Buddhist centre both for practising Buddhists and visitors within around three-year time,' he said.

Panda, while speaking on the sidelines of the third international conference on the Buddhist heritage of Odisha, said: 'Connectivity with other Buddhist sectors and roping in tour operators to put Buddhist sites of our state and their travel plan on the tourism map will be in focus.'

Earlier, while inaugurating the event, chief minister Naveen Patnaik recalled the 'spiritual imperialism' by the Buddhists.

He also advised the organisers to work in exploring more potential sites of Odisha. Naveen unveiled a book titled Excavations at Radhanagar, an Early Historical Buddhist Site by Sunil Kumar Patnaik of the Odishan Institute of Maritime and South-East Asian Studies.

Tourism secretary Arabinda Padhee claimed that last year 1.8 crore tourists came to Odisha, while in 2013, the number was only 98 lakh. In 2014, nearly 78,000 foreign tourists visited the state.

Reacting to a question from a participant at the tourism seminar later, Padhee said that unlike the past years, Odisha Tourism would be active in the social media as it had missed the bus while almost all urban dwellers were getting hooked to Facebook or Twitter.

Entrepreneur and blogger Amrita Sabat said that while the whole world was connecting each other through social media, Odisha Tourism had failed to encash upon the opportunity.

President of the Indian Association of Tour Operators Subash Goyal, who came as a participant for the first time to the Buddhist conclave, said: 'After coming here I came to know that Odisha has such a rich treasure of sites and Buddhist relics and all need to be highlighted and marketed by the state government and tour operators.'

Goyal also advised the state government and tour operators to explore possibilities of low-cost tour packages, so that more tourists from across the nation and abroad will visit Odisha.

While former superintendent of state museum and state archaeology Debraj Pradhan alleged that Odisha had failed in showcasing its Buddhist heritage sites and relics to attract visitors from India and abroad, G.K. Lama, a professor in Buddhist studies from the Banaras Hindu University, requested the state government to help local organisers go for regular cultural events at the Buddhist sites to keep them in focus round the year.