Ticketed monuments under ASI care doing well

Tanvir A Siddiqui Posted online: Sunday , Jan 17, 2010 at 0146 hrs

Ahmedabad : A few other sites have low footfalls between March 2005 and December 2009; no foreign visitors in Lothal in last 5 yrs

Ticketed monuments in the state that are under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have done quite well in attracting good number of domestic and foreign tourists.

According to official data, five of the seven ticketed monuments have fared well from March 2005 to December 2009. Figures for the last five years indicate that increasing popularity of the monuments has led to a quantum jump in revenue from ticket sales.

However, during this period, Baba Pyare and Khapra Khodiya caves in Junagadh have received the lowest number of domestic visitors while no foreign tourist has visited Lothal, the only port city of the Harappan civilisation.

In the last five years, till December 2009, the total income from ticket sales at these monuments has touched Rs 1.74 crore, of which, Rs 27 lakh was from foreign tourists, revealed official data.

According to the authorities, Rani Ni Vav at Patan is the most popular among tourists. It is followed by Sun Temple at Modhera with Champaner monuments coming third and Ashokan edicts of Junagadh district at fourth rank on the popularity graph.

Superintendent archaeologist of ASI Vadodara Circle, K C Nauriyal, said that in case of Lothal, visitors found it difficult to access the place.

He said there was no connection between ticket income and money spent on the upkeep and preservation of monuments.

Nauriyal further said the Government of Gujarat had sent a proposal to the ASI for widening of the road leading to Lothal recently and the department was currently in the process of studying it.