Centre revamping monuments to create more jobs, value

Hyderabad's Golconda Fort, Delhi's Safdarjung Tomb, and Odisha's Konark Temple, are among several monuments across the country that the Centre plans to revamp to make them more viable in terms of revenue as well as jobs.

The ministry of culture as well as the Archaeological Survey of India has plans to upgrade over 75 monuments to make them centres for creating value and jobs, a senior official of the culture ministry told DH.

This plan includes the 7th-century Chittorgarh Fort and Mewar’s Kumbhalgarh Fort, also known as the Great Wall of India, in Rajasthan. The Pallava Dynasty temples and monuments at Mahabalipuram, as well as the Mughal-era fort Purana Qila in Delhi.

“We’re looking at upgrading these 75 monuments to begin with, and the first batch should be done by July,” the senior official said, adding that there are plans to rope in private entities to help with the effort.

This includes upgrading tourists facilities, visitor amenities and creating guided tours, the official said. Apart from that interpretation centres and illumination of the monuments will be done.

While this is similar to the ministry’s Monument Mitra scheme, the upgrading will not cover those monuments and tourist sites, the official said. Under the government’s Adopt a Monument scheme, private companies can bid to take up maintenance work of sites across the country; 93 tourist sites including Fatehpur Sikri, Chand Baoli, Pangong Tso, Sundarbans National Park, etc are part of the project.

Apart from revamping monuments, the culture ministry also plans to revamp its underwater excavations wing which had halted work over the years. Originally started in 2001, the wing carried out work in Lakshadweep, Pondicherry and Elephanta Island. Officials said that work for the division will start along sites across the coastline in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Odisha soon.

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