Post news network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 18: The partakers of the first edition of the weekly heritage tour, Ekamra Walks, strolled for a stretch of two kilometers near Mukteswar temple in Bhubaneswar discovering some of the minute details in design and gaining knowledge of the history of the nearby monuments and temples.
At the first tour of the series, which took place Sunday, more than 70 people showed active participation. It is being organised by the state tourism department, civic body Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and a private body Detour Odisha.
The cool and soothing morning of December 18 was a perfect day for such an event to kick start. The beauty of the surrounding was multiplied with priests offering morning prayers to the gods and goddesses of their respective shrines. Flower-sellers sitting on the side of the roads shouting their trade added to the mood.
Arti Ahuja, the principal secretary of the tourism department, inaugurated the event. She said that students could be benefitted if there was some sort of collaboration between organisers of the Walks and state education departments. She suggested them to include hotel owners to increase participation at the event.
The director of tourism department Nitin Jawale said, “As a city, we have maximum concentration of monuments in the entire world, but the tourism related activities needs to be more active, and this weekly tour will prove to be an advantage.”
Before initiating the tour from the Mukteswar Temple, local guide Satya Mishra gave a detailed description on the origin and evolution of designs of the shrines at the region and Buddhism’s influence on them.
Detour Odisha’s official Kartik Aruda’s team initiated the first tour of Ekamra Walks. He said he was happy that the event had finally begun, which would boost the tourism sector in the state. “We are happy with the response we received on the first day. With the support from the tourism department, we can conduct this event in a larger scale regularly. We are planning to increase the frequency of the tour.”