The district collector has issued a revised order directing the superintending archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI, Aurangabad Circle) to close all the heritage monuments and museums in the district for visitors from March 11 to April 4.
The ASI (Aurangabad Circle) received the revised order issued dated March 10, 2021 by the district collector Sunil Chavan. The superintending archaeologist (ASI, Aurangabad Circle) Milan Kumar Chauley called an emergency meeting of the key officials concerned and the orders of monuments closure till April 4 has been conveyed to all the officials at each monument. The office also informed them about the order issued by the district collector to the ASI headquarters in New Delhi. After discussion, Chauley issued a circular alerting all the heads of the monuments about the closure of the monuments, said the sources adding that the collector's order also mentioned the closure of all museums.
When contacted the deputy superintending archaeologist Biri Singh said, " As soon as we received the order from the district collector, we had alerted to all the in charge of monuments in our jurisdiction. We have also intimated our headquarter about the development."
Five ticketed monuments in district
There are six ticketed monuments in the jurisdiction of ASI (Aurangabad Circle), out of which, five are situated in Aurangabad district. They are world heritage Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Daulatabad Fort, Bibi ka Maqbara and
Aurangabad Caves.
Monuments had re-opened in December 2020
It may be noted that due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the heritage places in the district were closed for nine long months (from March) and were reopened in December 2020. The Aurangabad Tourism Development Forum president Jaswant Singh expressed his concern over the sustainability of the tourism industry and the dependents on it, this year due to the second wave of Covid-19.