Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has announced that its visitors' centres at world heritage site Ajanta and Ellora Caves will remain open the tourists and visitors, hereafter.
MTDC had spent crores of rupees on the upgradation of facilities and maintenance of these centres, ahead of the W20 (G20) delegation visit. Earlier, these centres were non-operational and closed to tourists due to various technical reasons. However, there was a consistent demand from tourists to open and operate them on a regular basis. Hence, the MTDC regional manager appealed to the tourists and visitors to take note of the facilities, stated the press release.
Ellora Visitor Centre
It is situated at a distance of 500 metres away from the entrance of the cave complex. There are two state-of-the-art auditoriums having a seating capacity of 250 persons. Two cafeterias and an exhibition hall admeasuring a 2,000 square metres area are impressive. The open theatre has the facility to conduct cultural programmes and has a seating capacity of 150 persons. There is a gallery for the exhibition of murals and paintings. The replica of the monolithic Kailas Temple is also very impressive.
Ajanta Visitor Centre
The centre has four replicas of paintings in Cave Numbers 1, 2, 16 and 17. The narration through an audio-visual guide is very good. The visitors can enjoy the facility of an adequate reading room, cafeterias, adequate vehicle parking and beautiful landscape. The dome theatre, audio-visual theatre, escalator and lift and other modern facilities are also of great benefit for the tourists.