Seventy six years ago, Mahatma Gandhi and his followers took 24 days to walk cross five districts to break the salt law on the Arabian sea, near Dandi in Gujarat, by making it themselves after boiling sea water.

Now this rough 241 miles journey, punctuated by bridges and open fields, that began from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, will not just be smoother. Dandi may soon become part of the larger value tourism map.

While the historic Dandi-Ahmedabad route has been given national highway status this year, the Culture Ministry is planning to develop the entire route by constructing memorials, libraries, prayer halls and rest houses at places of historical importance.

And last month, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad embraced the Dandi March as part of their grassroots innovation course. A business plan was prepared for developing a cottage industry of salt farming to honour the memory of the marchers. Anil Gupta, who occupies the Lalbhai Kasturbhai Chair at IIM, said that the focus of the study was to see whether Brand Dandi can actually become a selling proposition.

“The idea is to create a living memorial to the Gandhi yatris and create a viable economic activity. We are also looking into the issue of branding Dandi salt and giving it a Geographical Indication status,” he said.

The study prepared by IIM student Manoj Nair proposes involving the local panchayat in salt manufacturing, which in turn, could be sold to visitors at cheaper-than-market rate. Besides, the report also proposed creating 78 salt pans to honour the 78 people who participated in the march.

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