Taj Mahal to open on Sept 21 with limited visitors
Six months after the Taj Mahal was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Heritage Site will reopen for tourists on September 21 with social distancing norms in place, albeit with a limited capacity of 5,000 people every day, officials said. Tickets will only be sold online, said Agra district magistrate Prabhu N Sing. Visitors will be allowed in two slots — pre-lunch and post-lunch, with 2,500 visitors in each session. Once tickets for the first slot are sold, tickets will be issued for the second slot, an Archaeological Survey of India official said.
AGRA : World heritage monuments, the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, will be reopened for the public from September 21, after six months of closure. Due to the Covid surge, not more than 5,000 tourists will be allowed at the Taj in a day, said officials.
These monuments had been closed since March 17, before the lockdown.
“Taj Mahal and Agra Fort will reopen for tourists from September 21. Ticket sale will be online and the Taj will remain closed on Fridays and Sundays. Protocol for Covid-19 will be followed while allowing tourists inside the monument,” informed Prabhu N Singh, district magistrate. Other monuments in Agra had reopened on September 1.
“The Taj Mahal will have visitors in two slots, pre-lunch and post-lunch. In each slot, there would be a maximum of 2,500 visitors. Once tickets for the first slot are sold, tickets will be issued for the second slot. In a day, a maximum 5,000 visitors can visit the Taj Mahal,” stated Vasant Swarnkar, superintending archaeologist for Agra Circle of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Tickets won’t be sold through the window. These can be booked online from the website of ASI, mobile app etc.
“The visitors will be thermally
checked for temperature; hand sanitized and would be required to maintain physical distancing when inside monument. The monument will be sanitized time to time,” stated Swarnkar.
Licenced photographers will also not be allowed on the Taj campus at one time. A time slot will be given to them for being on the premises, he added.
Tourism trade experts recollect that the Taj Mahal had never remained closed for such a long period. The decision to close down monuments all over the nation due to Covid-19 pandemic
was taken on March 17 , even before the lockdown.
“It is perhaps for the first time that the ‘monument of love’ which attracts a large number of tourists to India had been closed for such long time,” said Arun Dang, former president of Tourism Guild and veteran of Agra tourism trade.
“This is unprecedented. Though the monument was closed during the Second World War and also during two wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, the closure had not been so long,” said Dang.