News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                       At a time when tourist destinations like Goa are facing a setback in tourism, the tourist traffic in Agra is creating records with the number of tourists visiting the Taj Mahal shooting up from an average 5,000-6,000 to almost 16,000 a day. According to Archaeological Survey of India sources in Agra, on Saturday, the number of tourists arriving at the Taj reached nearly 13,000, most of them Indian, while the number of foreign tourists also crossed 2,000. The rise in the number of tourists reached a record high on Sunday, when more than 16,000 tourists entered the monument while about 3,000 had to be turned away due to the monument being filled to its capacity.  

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra.                       Taken aback by the sudden revocation of the proposed trade tax rebate at the Sefai trade fair, Maruti dealers in Agra adopted a novel way to recover losses by organising a car fair in the town, offering huge discounts on the delivery of cars that had been booked in advance by the customers in anticipation of the tax rebate in Sefai. On Sunday, all three Maruti dealers of Agra--Madhusudan, Kavisha, and Triveni Motors--joined hands to tide over the impending losses in business after the UP government first assured a trade tax rebate at the Sefai trade fair and then backed out, inconveniencing Agra car dealers, who had more than 1,000 cars of different models they had bought for the Sefai fair. According to Ramashanker Agarwal, director, Madhusudan Motors, at least 1,500 cars had been booked by all the three Maruti dealers in the town for delivery at the Sefai trade fair, while the dealers had ordered 1,900 cars from the company. To han

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                     Usha International Ltd, a leading engineering equipment manufacturing company, launched portable diesel pump sets for agricultural and domestic purposes last week in Agra. Following the launch, company officials held a two-day technical session at Hotel Grand in Agra. Here, company dealers and mechanics from Western UP, Uttaranchal and Rajasthan were informed about the technical aspects of diesel engines running in these pumpsets, which had been specially imported by the company and optimised for operating in Indian conditions.

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. While the UP government’s sudden backtracking on the trade tax rebate offered by it earlier on automobile sales in the Sefai trade fair has left the local four-wheeler dealers gasping for air, two-wheeler and tractor dealers are on cloud nine at the hopes of a sudden boost in the number of customers following the conditional tax rebate offered by the state government on two- and three-wheelers and tractors during the fair. Talking to Business Standard, Rajiv Gupta, former Chairman, National Chamber of Industries & Commerce, UP, said according to a conservative estimate, vehicles worth over Rs 250 crore were expected to be sold at the Sefai trade fair before the state government decided to make a compromise on the tax rebate issue by restricting the rebate from being extended to four-wheelers. This seriously undermined the concept of the trade fair, where most people had been making advance bookings for purchasing cars, not two-wheelers.

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                Following the cancellation of stay-orders granted to the unapproved guides working at the Agra monuments, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has placed a comprehensive ban on all such guides as well as State-guides from entering the Taj Mahal and other monuments of the town. According to ASI sources, there were atleast 650 unapproved guides working at the various Agra monuments for the past three years, after having obtained stay orders against their eviction. Another 200-250 guides were working under authorisation from the State Government's tourism department, which had no jurisdiction over the monuments maintained by the ASI. Following the cancellation of the stay orders granted to the unapproved guides by the Court, it was decided that such guides shall no longer be allowed to function inside the monument as these guides would provide incorrect and many a times, entirely fictitious information regarding the history of such monuments.

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                 Concerned at the operational losses accumulating each year in running its services in Agra, the Indian Postal Department has now come up with a concept to cover at least some of those. According to postal department sources, the department’s post offices located in the tourist-frequented areas of Agra would soon take up the appearance of small handicraft emporiums. Here the department will begin retailing miniature marble Taj Mahal replicas and other souvenirs to the tourists. The proposal for the project has already been sent to the Centre for approval and hopefully, the India Post Handicraft Emporiums will open their doors for the tourists in Agra within a couple of months. Talking to the mediapersons today, RB Mishra, senior superintendent of Post, Agra, said besides the marble replicas of the Taj Mahal, there were a number of marble & leather handicrafts that found buyers. So far, the postal department had only acted as a s

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.           Barely a couple of months after the much-debated success of the MCD sealing drive in Delhi, the Agra Development Authority (ADA) embarked on its own sealing drive in Agra on Monday, beginning with the sealing of a commercial market complex at the Church Road in a residential area. According to ADA sources, the drive was to begin from December 4 but was delayed because there was no adequate police support. After the ADA was ensured about the deployment of police personnel at the sealing sites as well as with the sealing squads, the sealing drive was launched from Monday. Later, talking to the mediapersons, Rajendra Singh, vice-chairman, ADA, said the sealing drive was in pursuance to the government directions issued earlier. So far, about 1,900 commercial buildings had been sent sealing notices, asking them to ensure compliance of the city development plan in the construction of the building, he added. He said about 2,000 commercial bui

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.             Multinationals entering the pharmaceutical retail segment are posing a threat to “friendly neighbourhood chemists”. Companies like Apollo and Subhiksha have entered the pharma retail market in the metros by introducing the concept of designer stores, malls, in-house medical consultation, etc. Worried by the growing clout of multinationals in this market segment, the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) held a meeting at the Hotel Jaypee Palace in Agra on Sunday, where pharmaceutical dealers and retailers from all over the country agreed on a strategy to counter this threat. Talking to mediapersons on this occasion, AN Mohan, president, AIOCD, said multinational companies were making live-saving drugs prohibitively expensive by patenting the molecules of these drugs. Moreover, the central government’s pharmaceutical policy too, was placating such companies, he added. He said one of the major achievements of the AI

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                             Foreign tourists visiting Agra have often written in tourist guidebooks and blogs about viewing the Taj Mahal in the morning, sipping tea at the numerous rooftop restaurants located in the densely-packed Tajganj area of Agra, a few hundred metres away from the monument. But these famous rooftop restaurants of Tajganj are now facing the danger of being wiped out completely by the year-end. At least six such restaurants, which form the staple business of the residents of this Mughal era settlement, were forcibly shut down on Wednesday and Thursday by the Agra Development Authority while at least half dozen more have been issued a warning to down their shutters before the end of this year. This is because these restaurants, most of them situated on 40-50 feet high buildings, provide a “too clear” view of the Taj Mahal. This was marked as a grave danger for the monument by Amicus Curie, appointed by the Supreme Court, dur

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                  Inadequate CNG connections from Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) have dealt a body blow to the glass industry of Firozabad, near Agra. The industry is often compared to Belgium’s for the quality of glassware it produces and exports worldwide. It is well-known for glass bangles and souvenirs produced in its small-scale glass-manufacturing units. But, following the Supreme Court’s sanctions countermanding the operation of coal-fired furnaces in the Taj Trepezium Zone, more than 1,000 furnaces here are on the verge of being shut down in these glass factories. So, the Firozabad glassware industry is now asking for the development of a new industrial cluster outside the Taj Trepezium Zone, which is free from pollution-related restrictions. A number of polluting industries in Firozabad, like leather tanneries and iron foundries, have been forced to either shut down or relocate after the Supreme Court directives against such industries.

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.               After a long list of economical housing projects launched by virtually all noted real estate developers of the country over the past couple of years in Agra, Parshvanath Developers Ltd has launched the town’s first luxury apartments project named “Prerna”. Talking to mediapersons on the occasion of the project launch yesterday, Sanjeev Jain, managing director, Parshavnath Developers Ltd, said the project had been designed specifically for the high end of the market. Being developed in a medium-sized area of 6 acres, he said the project would have 249 luxury housing units developed on an international housing pattern, which the company had visualised for the first time for the town. He said the most unique factor of this housing project shall be that this would be the first housing project that shall have piped cooking gas supply in all housing units, obliterating the need for domestic gas cylinders. Besides, he said, all housing un

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                 The tourism industry in Agra could get a major boost in the coming year as three private airlines are planning to begin regular air services, linking Agra to major tourist destinations, almost two years after the last scheduled flight touched down at the Agra airport. With the state-run Alliance Air skipping Agra on the route from Delhi to Varanasi of the erstwhile popular air-sector spanning Delhi-Agra-Khajuraho-Varanasi and back, the local airport, equipped with all facilities befitting an international airport, has been lying deserted for some years, save for a few domestic and international charters that arrive here time to time. The three airlines--Air Deccan, Kingfisher and a new entrant MDLR Airways--are planning flights connecting Agra to major tourist destinations like Delhi, Jaipur and Goa within the coming year. Sources at the Agra Airport said the recent few weeks had seen hectic activity as airline operators were busy as

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.    The crime graph is soaring in Agra with daylight robberies rocking the city on a regular basis. To buck this trend, local traders have chosen an ingenious way to foil the robbers by using dummy cars and dummy cash-bags to ferry large sums of cash, a practice that saved a local petrol pump owner from being robbed on Monday morning. According to police sources, in a daring daylight robbery attempt, three robbers on a bike stopped a local petrol pump dealer's car barely hundred meters away from the police post. They banged the car's side with a baseball bat forcing the driver out of the car. One of the goons trained a gun on the driver and sped away, grabbing the bag lying on the front seat. A shocked local police begun a search for the robbers, who they believed had taken away about Rs 5 lakh which was being taken to the nearby bank. But to their relief, the pump owner informed soon afterwards that the bag was in fact a dummy that had been specially pre