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Taj Mahal: Love Symbol and World Wonder Ticketed by Internet

By Jalees Andrabi

New Delhi: The epitome of love, Taj Mahal will be a mouse click away now. The Archaeological survey of India, the government agency for the maintenance and conservation of monuments in India will soon start e-ticketing to facilitate visitors visiting Taj from all over the world. The sixteenth century white marble mausoleum of Mughal king, Shahjahan and his wife, Noor Jahan, last month earned the title of being one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Presently the entry tickets to the Taj are available in the Taj premises at Agra. On average more than ten thousand tourists visit Taj everyday. The flow exceeds fifteen thousand in peak season. The agency has also agreed to restrict the number of visitors visiting the main mausoleum. This step will be taken to conserve the ambience of the wonder and a world heritage site declared by UNESCO.

The ASI officials say e-ticketing will help visitors to organise their tours and will be hassle free. "At any given time you will find long ticketing queues, Sometimes people wait for hours to get the entry ticket. Surely e-ticketing will save their time and can be done at ease."

The government agency will engage national and international experts of different disciplines for a 'scientific study' to arrive at the exact number of visitors who should be allowed inside the mausoleum at a given point of time, based on the advice of various organisations like UNESCO, the agency will also take into account parameters like tourist inflow, security, conservation and ambience.

The agency officials say that the restriction will not affect the visitors, "For visitors it is a big challenge to get in and jostling crowds often spoil the visit. The restriction will provide a calm and sated visit to every visitor." For security reasons, the ASI has also mooted the idea of introducing a Radio frequency identification device (RFID) in the tickets to keep track of the tourists who spend time inside the Taj complex.

Situated on the banks of River Yamuna in the historic city of Agra, The Taj attracts millions of tourists every year from all over the world. The tourist flow goes beyond the figure of thirty thousand a day during Id and annual Shahjahan festivals. More than 2.5 million tickets were sold last year. The monument saw 2 million Indian visitors and half a million foreign tourists in 2006. In the first six months of 2007, about 1.38 million tourists out of which, one million were Indians and three hundred thousand foreigners visited the Taj.

Jalees Andrabi is a Delhi based journalist.