Incredible Taj!

VISHAL SHARMA

INDIA (AGRA) 25 Nov. The landmark decision of the Indian Supreme Court to allow the night opening of the Tajmahal has again raised the hopes of the tottering tourism industry of Agra, which may now expect a major boost in the tourist traffic coming to the town.

The Tajmahal is seen all over the world as India’s tourism icon and the tourist traffic in Agra serves as the most reliable gauge for the foreign tourist traffic inThe wait is finally over India. For years on end, the Indian tourism industry has been dogged by the low turnout of foreign tourists largely due to the prevailing uncertainty, both in the international as well as the domestic scenario.

Delivering a landmark judgement on Thursday, the Supreme Court has allowed the UP government to open the Tajmahal for five moonlit nights, barring Fridays, on an experimental basis for three months - November, December 2004 & January 2005. In the month of November, when the Tajmahal shall be opened for night viewing on 27 & 28 November as the full-moon night on 26th is falling on a Friday, a day of weekly closure of the monument.

The monument has remained shut down during the nights since the days of Sikh terrorism in Punjab and with the advent of terrorism in Kashmir, the security threat on the monument increased several folds and the prospects of the opening this monument by moonlight had grown dim. Before the monument was shut down, every moonlit night used to be a festival inside the Taj, with couples wandering about in the Taj premises, enjoying the Tajmahal bathed in the moonlight. Locals claim that the Tajmahal used to serve as the ideal spot for arranging weddings and both interested parties used to meet in the shadow of this symbol of eternal love.

Foreign and Indian tourists came in huge groups, bringing in good business to the hospitality and tourism industry of Agra. Now, with the Tajmahal opening for night the local tourism industry can again hope for the return of those golden days.

(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chambal Bandit for 30 years, Nirbhay retires to the Himalayas

VIJAY UPADHYAY ETAWAH/BHIND. For 30 years, he ruled the Chambal with a steady hand but weakened by age and continually dogged by the police, Nirbhay Gujjar, the last remaining edifice of the old stock of bandits from India’s own “Wild-Wild West”, may have at last taken a peaceful retirement in the Himalayas, that he was vying for a long time. Reports filtering in from the Chambal ravines of Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining Bhind of Madhya Pradesh indicate that this most feared bandit of Chambal has finally given up the ghost, following the rising waters of the river and the depleting strength of his gang due to regular encounters by the police of these two states. According to the residents of the villages of Etawah, Bhind & Kalpi, Jaloun districts, Nirbhay has not been seen in these parts for quite some time and his regular contacts in the villages are no longer active. The gang has even gone untraceable on the electronic surveillance net of the police. Sources ...
Read more

Trade tax hits Agra`s dal mills

The 4.5 per cent trade tax has reduced incomes to merely Rs 2,500-3,000 per metric tonne Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. There was a time when the “dal mills” of Agra catered for the processing needs of faraway states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Today, this industry is just a sorry remnant of its prosperous past. Once spread all across the town with 150 units working in tandem to process over 400 tonnes of pulses a day and a clientele spread throughout the country, Agra’s dal mill industry has now shrunk to barely 30-35 units processing little more than 75 tonnes of pulses. The repercussions of the weakening pulse of this “pulse-processing industry” can be felt in the machine-tool forging units in the Nunhai industrial area of the town, where production of dal mill equipment has dropped to less than a quarter of what was produced earlier. These units now lay more stress on producing flour mill equipment. According to Agra Dal Mill Association General Secret...
Read more

UP won`t go the VAT way, says Mulayam

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. At a time when almost all the states in the country have accepted the VAT regime, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has again reiterated his stance on not accepting VAT in the state, expressing his confidence in the trade-tax regime in the state. According to the chief minister, Uttar Pradesh shall not accept VAT at any cost, even if it meant that the state became completely segregated economically from the rest of the country. He is, however, confident that the state shall have lower inflation rates than the rest of the country. While other states are busy adjusting to the new tax regime, UP traders are divided in their opinion over the possible economic repercussions of the state not adopting VAT. According to UP Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal Chairman Banwarilal Kanchhal, the state is faring well without VAT and the revenue earned by the state in trade tax had increased by 28 per cent, compared with the states that had accepte...
Read more