Tourism ministry urged for re-opening of heritage sites in Maharashtra

Aurangabad, Nov 11:

The Directorate of Tourism (Mumbai) has urged the state''s principal secretary Tourism and Cultural Affairs to re-open the heritage monuments in Maharashtra and underlined that it does not have any objection, if the permission is granted with standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place, on priority.

The letter duly signed by the Director (Tourism) mentioned the letter (of dated October 20, 2020) of the Aurangabad Tourism Development Foundation''s (ATDF) chairman of Public Relations & Civil Aviation Committee, Sunit Kothari, who highlighted on how the tourism industry is gasping for a lease of life. He also underlined how the livelihoods of thousands of tourism professionals, tourism service providers and their staff had been affected due to closure of monuments and non-arrivals of tourists in the city for the past seven months. The director also mentioned about the letter (of Nov 4, 2020) of Raigad''s collector seeking permission to reopen the heritage sites in his jurisdiction for tourists.

The situation is unlocking under the Mission Begin Again in phases. Hence with all SOPs and safety measures there is no objection in re-opening of the heritage monuments in Maharashtra. Hence the permission should be granted at the earliest, stated the letter.