The Chief Minister's Office of Uttarakhand on Sunday, 21 June 2026 shared a statement from Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reaffirming the state government's commitment to developing Uttarakhand as the spiritual capital of the world, with a specific pledge to extend temple development from the Kedarkhand circuit to the Manaskhand region.

Context

Speaking through the official CMO account, CM Dhami stated: 'Uttarakhand poore vishwa ki aadhyatmik rajdhani bane, iske liye hum nirantar karya kar rahe hain' ('We are continuously working towards making Uttarakhand the spiritual capital of the entire world'). He added that temple development in the Manaskhand region — the Kumaon division's pilgrimage cluster — is being ensured on the same lines as the development already undertaken in Kedarkhand, the Garhwal division's storied pilgrimage circuit centred on Kedarnath.

The statement signals a deliberate policy of geographic balance: ensuring that the eastern Kumaon hills receive infrastructure investment comparable to the more internationally recognised Garhwal shrines.

Policy Backdrop

Uttarakhand's temple development push has deep roots. Following the devastating 2013 Kedarnath floods, the state launched large-scale reconstruction and pilgrimage infrastructure upgrades from 2014 onward. The central government's PRASAD scheme, introduced in 2014–15, identified Uttarakhand sites for funded spiritual tourism amenities, and the Char Dham all-weather road project was approved in 2016 to improve connectivity to the four major shrines — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.

A 2022 state tourism policy update prioritised expansion beyond the core Char Dham circuit, explicitly targeting lesser-known temple clusters. The Manaskhand corridor — encompassing ancient Kumaon shrines — has since been positioned as the next frontier of this strategy, mirroring the Kedarkhand model in terms of road access, pilgrim facilities and heritage conservation.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of the Manaskhand push are hill communities in Kumaon, whose local economies depend heavily on seasonal pilgrimage traffic. Temple committees managing shrines in the circuit stand to receive infrastructure support, while tourism operators across the state anticipate a broader spread of visitor footfall beyond the already-saturated Char Dham routes.

For pilgrims, parallel development of both circuits means more options, reduced congestion at peak sites, and improved safety infrastructure across a wider geography. The framing of Uttarakhand as a 'world spiritual capital' also carries soft-power implications, positioning the state as a destination for the global Hindu diaspora and international spiritual tourists.

What's Next

Concrete progress on the Manaskhand temple projects — including any new budget allocations, inauguration timelines or project lists — is expected to emerge at the next Uttarakhand state assembly session or an upcoming state tourism summit. CM Dhami's administration has made religious tourism a centrepiece of its economic development narrative, and sustained delivery on the Manaskhand promise will be a key metric by which that agenda is judged. A successful twin-circuit model could also serve as a template for other Himalayan states seeking to monetise spiritual heritage without overloading a single pilgrimage corridor.