Chennai: Tamil Nadu has many many monuments and heritage sites in this country, all managed by the Indian archaeological survey (ASI) but most of them do not have basic facilities, reply to Lok Sabha has revealed.
Of the 412 sites in the state, drinking water is only available at 78 sites and toilets available in 26 monuments.
In response to the question in the previous parliamentary house, the cultural minister of Union G Kiswan Reddy said 283 monuments had a path approach and 23 had parking facilities.
While only one monument has Wi-Fi facilities, no one has an audio / application-based guide, the answer, adds that 116 monuments are in a state of having a sign.
Only 21 monuments have benches, the answer said.
There is a striking contrast in maintaining monuments that are centrally protected in Mamallapuram and Sadras in the East Coast Road (ECR).
While the sites marked in Mamallapuram, which included a famous Shore Temple, had been given basic facilities such as drinking water, parking lots and toilets, facilities as it was striking with their absence in the Fortress and Dutch cemetery who were equally famous in Sadras, only 10 km from Mamallapuram.
When contacted, ASI told TII that the approach of the approach was provided in almost all monuments in the Chennai circle consisting of 133 monuments, while the boundary on the monument in the trichy circle was provided in stages.
ASI capacity and available financial resources are strategically optimized while providing facilities and facilities to visit the public, response from ASI added.
But stakeholders in the tourism sector emphasize that there is no availability of facilities to prevent tourists, especially from abroad, visit.
R Stalin, a tourist guide based in Mamallapuram, said that Sadras did not even have signs to direct the people traveling between Mamallapuram and Puducherry on ECR to break their journey and explore the fort almost 400 years.
“There are also nil facilities for visitors in the Dutch fortress.
Sexy tourists show interest in sites like that, but the basic facilities are not there for them,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Tour Travel and the Presidential Association of President V K T Balan said that ASI must extend the ‘Adoption A Heritage’ project to other sites to improve facilities in CSR funds.