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Ah, Taj!

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Night-time in Agra will, yet again, be redolent of romance.

Put differently, the Centre is on the verge of okaying plans by the Uttar Pradesh government and the Archaeological Survey of India to reopen the famed Taj Mahal for night-viewing.

Further, the marble monument to undying love will be lit up at nights -- a practise that has been banned ever since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and persistent terrorist threats, during that period, that the magnificent edifice would be blown up.

Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Kalraj Mishra says, "I have had a detailed talk in this regard with Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani during his recent visit to Lucknow, and he has given me a categorical assurance that the ministry's restriction on night viewing would be lifted soon."

Mishra had in fact indicated, during a meeting of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India, that some such move was in the immediate offing.

It was in fact the association that first drew Mishra's attention to the loss to the tourism industry due to the ban on night-time visitations at the Taj -- rough estimates putting the loss in income at around the Rs 10 billion mark during the 14-year period of the ban.

Ravindra Singh, director of tourism in the state, admitted that hotel occupancy in Agra had been hard hit by the restriction. "The lighting of the magnificent monument, and night-viewing had been a traditional attraction for both foreign and domestic tourists, who preferred to stay overnight in Agra for the purpose," he said.

As per the hoteliers' association, occupancy had gone down from 56 per cent in 1984 to 38 per cent as of now. "After the ban on night-viewing, tourists began coming in to Agra in the morning and leaving in the evening, treating the place as a stop-over between Delhi and Rajasthan," a spokesman points out.

Mishra's original plan was to have the ban lifted in time for Karthik Pournima, and he had in fact got the ASI's approval for the proposal. "The home ministry's green signal was however required in view of the security implications -- we have got that just now, and the official confirmation should follow immediately," says the minister.

The hoteliers association meanwhile is now pressing for the lifting of a ban on shooting of pictures from Taj Khema, a vantage point for procuring the best view. As of now, a fine of Rs 40,000 attaches to any attempt to photograph the monument from that vantage point.

The ban, says an association representative, is "both illogical and ridiculous."

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