chennai a heritage village and tourism is being planned at singaperumal koil 40km from chennai as part of efforts to augment rural tourism by the union governmentthe government has sanctioned 25 lakh under the shyama prasad mukherji rurban mission based on the suggestion presented by the state government said minister of tourism kishen reddy in a written reply in the lok sabha about promotion of rural tourism on tuesdaythe money is sanctioned under critical gap funding under which funds will be sourced from different centre and state schemesunder the scheme to develop heritage villages and tourism steps may be taken to prepare sightseeing tours for tourists to explore the villages and learn about the local culture and arts so that the urbanrural divide could be bridged effectively the village will capture the art culture and traditions unique to the district skill training and economic activities associated with the region will be offered to the people alongside the heritage villagesingaperumal koil and six nearby villages appur chettipuniyam guruvanmedu kolathur reddiplayam and venkatapuram are already notified as a cluster for implementing rurban mission which aims to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas by providing by providing economic livelihood and physical infrastructure facilities in rural clusters tourism promotion is one of the elements of the project said the minister in his replyhe also said that the states or union territories have proposed the activities related to tourism promotion under integrated cluster action plan the funding under the mission is shared in a ratio of 6040 for the states he saidan official said that rurban mission work is going on in which women of the villages are brought together and are being provided training for livelihood the mission says that the ruralurban divide in tamil nadu is 310 much less than the national average this means that there is a ruralurban continuum in the state nevertheless the scheme is expected to lessen the gap further and also promote rural and heritage tourisma similar attempt is being made effectively in jharkhand under spmrm