Soon, guided tour packages, heritage walks for Ayodhya
LUCKNOW: The state culture department and the Ayodhya district administration have designed six religious-cultural trips and heritage walks for pilgrims and tourists alike that will be implemented soon. In ranges between 10-kilometre and 170 km, the culture trips and heritage walks will have a duration varying from two hours to halfa-day.
“We have designed tour packages for Ayodhya. These trips and walks are under Ayodhya’s short term tourism development plan while there are many longterm projects too. It will make things easier for the visitors who will have an option to go for short and long duration trips or a combination of them as per the time they have. They will be launched soon,” said Ayodhya district magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha.
Once these trips and walks start, all that the visitors will have to do is to book packages of their choice either over phone or online. “Walks obviously will be guided ones with an expert guide walking along and describing heritage, history, religious significance. The trips would be on package-provided vehicles,” said a cultural department officer.
So far, a total of six circuits have been finalised. For instance, there is a seven-hour package tour that would begin at 6.30 am every day from Laxman temple at Sahastradhara ghat. It
will traverse through Chandrahari temple, Nageshwarnath temple, Ram Ki Paidi, Korea Park, Ramkatha Sangrahalaya, Vilvahari temple, Dashrath samadhi, Shitala Devi, Hanuman Gadhi, Kanak Bhawan and Shri Ram Janmabhoomi before culminating at Ram Ki Paidi.
Another one will start at 12.30 pm each day from Hanuman Gadhi and passing through several places such as Kanak Bhawan, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi, various ghats, including Guptar ghat, Bharat Kund, will take the visitors to Ram Ki Paidi for Saryu Aarti.
The biggest one—170 km long circuit is ten-and-a-half-hour trip starting from Naya ghat at 8am. It will go to various temples and then to Saryu-Ghaghara Sangam (confluence of Saryu and Ghaghara rivers), Tusli ashram, Agastya ashram, Parashar ashram and then facilitate Saryu Aarti at Ram Ki Paidi—its final point.
The one heritage walk finalised so far will begin at 6 am from Rin Mochan crossing, making visitors walk through Jhunki ghat, Gola ghat and Sahastradhara before ending at Maukhada tirth sthal.
“The state government is doing a lot of things to make it a prominent religious tourism city in the world. These tour packages and walks will make it convenient for the tourists and visitors once they land in Ayodhya,” said the culture department officer.
“Already, the annual Deepotsava has won Ayodhya a lot of eyeballs globally and Ayodhya administration is also engaged in renovating all religious, mythological, and historical sites under its Chaurasi kosi, Chaudaha kosi and Panch kosi parikrama (circumambulation). Along with shelters for pilgrims, there will also be arrangements of other basic facilities besides ‘kuccha’ routes for pilgrims on foot.
A separate action plan has also been prepared for the development of major sites like Makhauda,” the officer added.