JOIN USAs the officials and the district administration gear up for another Dasara, the nine-day cultural extravaganza, Deccan Herald looks into the basic amenities and facilities surrounding the key tourist places in the city and finds glaring problems that bring a bunch of woes for visitors, particularly when the town is chock-a-block with hordes of tourists for over days.
All the tourist places, be it the palace, the zoo, the St Philomena Church, Chamundi hill, Sri Jayachamarajendra art gallery presents a bleak scenario when it comes to meeting decent basic requirements like drinking water facility and toilets and secondary needs like cloak room and waiting lounges.
Though, the palace has visitors throughout the year, except for inside the palace precincts, the surrounding area does not have a clean drinking water facility or a toilet facility.
Similar is the case with the Jayachamarajendra art gallery at the Jaganmohana palace. The trust maintaining the gallery has constructed a public toilet, which is badly maintained.
Often, the visitors and the localities are seen using the vacant place in the Gun house premises near Amba Vilas Palace and within the compound walls of Jaganmohana palace for urinals.
The surrounding of Zoo poses even more difficult problems for those waiting in the queue. They would have to wait to get inside the zoo to get drinking water and access to toilets.
The place surrounding the St Philomena’s Church also does not fare any better. The filthy roads surrounding the famous church itself attract public and tourist criticism in the area.
Although the top of the hill near Chamundeshwari temple is presently haunted with similar woes, thanks to the JnNURM project. The hill shrine would soon be equipped with citizens’ infrastructure centre and bus stand facility to cater to basic amenities for visitors.
The worst part of the scenario is all major commercial streets or the by-lanes do not have well maintained clean public toilets.
And, where they exist, people try to avoid them due to its unhygienic and filthy nature. When contacted, officials reason non - availability space in the prime localities or important roads in the town.
The public also have a responsibility in keeping their city clean and maintain hygienic surroundings, an official told Deccan Herald.
Mahesh Kumar, a filmmaker who concentrates on making short documentaries on historical and tourist places says the city lacks a dedicated transport circuit connecting various tourist places. Forget running such vehicles throughout the year, such a facility is non-existent even during peak of the tourist season like Dasara and summer vacations, he says.
DH News Service