Bhubaneswar: Ekamra Walks, the only guided heritage walk of the city, continues to maintain its popularity among foreign travellers touching down the city.
In its 46th edition today, 10 visitors from France and one from the US took part in the walk.
Out of the 90 walkers, more than 60 were girls and the major chunk was from city-based ICICI Academy of Skills. The students of this institute have majorly contributed to the weekly heritage walks, besides other city-based national and international institutes.
Sylvie Favarque, part of the French delegation, said that she has found the tour extremely educative and that the team has been pretty satisfied to note the “monumental wealth’’ of the ancient city.
Francois Bouqueniaux, also part of the heritage walkers’ team from the European nation, said, “we feel very happy to know about the ancient temple architecture and also the social and cultural traditions of the Old City of Bhubaneswar.’’
Gloria Sclar, a research scholar from Emory University in the USA, who is working on the sanitation issues in rural Orissa, came to the walk with her friend from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Parimita Routray.
Gloria said, “I had been to Orissa in the past, some four or five times. But I never joined the heritage walk. I found Ekamra Walks an extremely engaging platform to let the visitors know and discover the rich heritage treasure of this State Capital as it is also known as the Temple City of India.’’
Last week, while participating in the Ekamra Walks, Mayor of Cupertino City in the USA, Mrs. Savita Vaidhyanathan had appreciated the girls for participating in the heritage walk.
While talking to some of the participants, especially from ICICI Academy of Skills, she had asked them to be quick learners of soft skills and also to have a dashing personality and abilities to carry oneself well to win over difficulties and challenges in life.
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