Capacity Building and Climate Resilience for Sustainable Tourism at Tehri Lake

proposed

The technical assistance (TA) will support implementation of the proposed Sustainable, Inclusive, and Climate-Resilient Tourism Development at Tehri Lake Area Project (the project). The project will support rural livelihoods through sustainable tourism for the Tehri Lake area of Tehri Garhwal District in Uttarakhand Stateamong the state's poorest hill regions and subject to climate change-induced natural hazards, outmigration, and linked impacts to rural women; and rapidly increasing visitor numbers. The project is aligned with the following impact: tourism's contribution to gross domestic product of Uttarakhand State increased. The expected project outcome is: sustainable, inclusive, and climate-resilient tourism in Tehri Lake area established. The expected outputs are: (i) climate-smart institutional framework for tourism strengthened; (ii) climate-resilient, gender-responsive, and accessible infrastructure for tourism established; (iii) tourism led by women, youth, and the private sector scaled up; and (iv) nature-based solutions for environmental protection and women-led disaster risk management (DRM) enhanced. The project will be financed by a regular loan of $126.42 million from Asian Development Bank's (ADB) ordinary capital resources. The proposed duration is six years (20252030). The executing agency is Uttarakhand State, acting through the Department of Tourism.The TA will support implementation of the non-structural components of the proposed project, focusing especially on institutional strengthening, livelihoods, capacity building, and knowledge generation. The TA activities will be in the Tehri Lake area of Tehri Garhwal District in Uttarakhand State, India. The TA area and scope encompasses: (i) 98 villages around Tehri Lake within the administrative area managed by the Tehri Special Area Tourism Development Authority (TADA); and (ii) one town, New Tehri. The intended beneficiaries of the TA are local communities including residents, self-help groups, and civil society organizations (CSOs); micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME); and TADA and district agencies involved in the project.The TA has been prepared at the request of the Uttarakhand Department of Tourism and is anchored within ADB's country partnership strategy for India, which prioritizes support for rural development through tourism, the private sector, climate-resilient facilities and enabling services, and alternative rural livelihoods.