NEW DELHI: Tourist footfalls at lighthouses along India’s sprawling 7,517-km coastline have risen by 400 percent from 400,000 tourists to 1.6 million annually in 10 years, the Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, said today.

Lighthouse tourism is an innovative new effort by India to attract visitors to its 203 lighthouses countrywide, many of which have historical value and antecedents.

Sonowal said that in the first half of the current fiscal year, a record 900,000 tourists have visited India’s lighthouses. He announced plans to create a national association of communities which live in the vicinity of lighthouses and empower them to celebrate these centuries-old monuments as national icons and cultural heritage.

Sonowal announced two new lighthouses to be built in Odisha state and inaugurated another in Gujarat state marking the end of the second Indian Lighthouse Festival today.

“For a long time, lighthouses, the guardians of our shores have remained unnoticed, even while they guided vessels and seafarers through the most challenging nights. The Lighthouse Festival is our effort to shift this perception and enlighten people about the contribution these iconic structures have made to India’s maritime legacy,” the Minister said.