A maximum of 5,000 visitors is going to be allowed in two shifts per day to go to the monument.
(Milcah Anila, Intern Journalist) Agra: Taj Mahal, the 17th-century architectural marvel, shut since St Patrick’s Day thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, opened for the general public on Monday. About 160 tickets were booked online but the primary to enter was a tourist from Taiwan staying in India, officials said.
A maximum of 5,000 visitors is going to be allowed in two shifts per day into the monument which can be a sight for sore eyes with its well-manicured lawns.
Officials at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said that they had not neglected the monument despite its gates having remained closed for therefore long.
Tight Covid-19 protocol is going to be followed for checking tourists. there’ll be no window ticket sale, visitors can scan the code to get tickets or book online through the ASI website or the mobile app.
Not many paid Rs 200 to go to the most mausoleum but appeared more content taking photos of the monument and clicking themselves on the ‘Diana seat’.
“Lawns were maintained during these six months and that we are ready for the Taj re-opening from September 21 – from sunrise to sunset. All would undergo thermal check and that they would be given a sanitizer,” said AN Gupta, conservation assistant, ASI at Taj Mahal.
Gupta said less than five visitors are going to be allowed at a time within the most mausoleum which houses the graves of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Mahal will remain closed on Fridays,” said Agra district magistrate Prabhu N Singh.
Vasant Swarnkar, a superintending archaeologist for ASI’s Agra circle, said, “The Taj Mahal will have visitors in two slots — pre-lunch and post-lunch. In each slot, there would be a maximum of two,500 visitors. Once tickets for the primary slot are sold, tickets are going to be issued for the second slot. In a day, a maximum of 5,000 visitors can visit the Taj Mahal .”
Central Industrial private security force (CISF) jawans will remain at a distance and check visitors with hand-held metal detectors.
While no goods are to be carried inside the Taj Mahal, an ambulance would be ready at the gates, Gupta said.
Taj reopening has excited all those that make a living in and around the monument. as an example, Munawwar Ali, 50, began cleaning items at his marble goods shop on Sunday for the primary time since March 16.
“We have called the staff on Monday after six months. We expect business to be slow but a minimum of getting to ” we’ll see tourists going to the Taj,” said Ali who features a shop adjoining the western gate of the monument.
‘Yes, we are excited about the reopening of the Taj after such an extended duration. each day will come when international flights will resume. within the beginning, domestic tourists from nearby regions would come,” said Rajiv Tiwari, president of the Federation of Travel Association of Agra.
“ASI must follow the Covid-19 protocol in order that all goes smoothly. the govt should begin brooding about restarting international flights as European nations have resumed tourism. we’ve to measure with the coronavirus,” Tiwari added.
Indians will need to pay Rs 50 per ticket for visiting the Taj Mahal and distribute Rs 200 more for entering the most mausoleum. During routine days, it had been mostly foreign tourists who wont to pay extra to enter the most mausoleum.
Tourism trade experts recollect that the Taj Mahal had never remained closed for such an extended period before. the choice to shut monuments everywhere the country thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic was taken on St Patrick’s Day, before the lockdown.
“It is probably for the primary time that the ‘monument of love’, which attracts an outsized number of tourists to India, had been closed for such an extended time,” said Arun Dang, former president of Tourism Guild.
“This is unprecedented. Though the monument was closed during the Second war and also during two wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, the closure had not been goodbye,” said Dang.
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