Record tourist rush at heritage spots

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

The Independence Day long weekend turned into a tourism boom for the city. Despite heavy rains, over 50,000 visitors flocked to Ellora, Ajanta, Bibi-ka-Maqbara, Daulatabad Fort, and Aurangabad Caves in just two days.

From Friday morning, showers lashed the district, but families still poured out to enjoy the holiday. Bibi-ka-Maqbara drew the biggest evening crowd, where long queues at the ticket counter and entrance tested visitors’ patience. At Daulatabad Ghat, traffic snarls left tourists struggling for hours. Officials from the Archaeological Survey of India, conservation assistant Sanjay Rohanekar, worked to manage the swelling numbers. Still, the sheer volume of visitors caused bottlenecks across major sites. Ellora alone recorded 11,500 visitors on Friday, including 25 foreigners. Ajanta, which saw 4,000 that day, reported even heavier footfall on Saturday, with families arriving in large numbers. Other sites too hosted foreign guests 18 at Bibi-ka-Maqbara, eight at Daulatabad, and four at Aurangabad Caves.

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Tourist footfall on August 15

• Ellora Caves: 11,500

• Ajanta Caves: 4,000

• Bibi-ka-Maqbara: 7,100

• Daulatabad Fort: 4,311

• Aurangabad Caves: 1,679

For residents, the weekend highlighted both the city’s tourism potential and its challenges heritage pride on one hand, traffic jams and poor crowd management on the other.

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Photo captions:

• Heavy rush at Bibi-ka-Maqbara on Friday.

• Visitors queueing at the Maqbara entrance.

• Long lines at Daulatabad Fort.