Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 9: Keeping in mind the historic significance of Dhauli, the state tourism department and other offices of the state government are now planning to work together to keep the famous Dhauli complex undisturbed by any man-made interventions. Official correspondences from the tourism department to other departments in the last few days hint at state government’s plan to do away with the commercial activities and illegal establishments at the site.
The state tourism department is now planning to arrange for small coaches to ferry tourists to the hill top from the parking slot (around 1km from the Dhauli hilltop) and bring them back. The main motive behind arranging for these small coaches, according to the department, is to keep the environment of the site as undisturbed as possible and ensure the safety of tourists who earlier used to go uphill in big coaches.
In a letter to a private firm, the tourism director wrote, “We have directed the concerned authorities to not allow big coaches to ply from the bottom of Dhauli to the hilltop of Dhauli, as a safety measure. There are instances of big coaches turning upside down, taking a toll on a number of visitors of those big coaches going up. … Given the above background it is requested that you (the private travel firm) may consider operating small coaches from the identified parking place to Dhauli hilltop and back.” Last month, the tourism department also wrote a letter to the authorities concerned to bar the entry of big coaches up to the uphill in order to ensure the safety of the visitors.
While talking to Orissa Post, S S Rath, secretary, Dhauli Development Committee, said, “The main aim of the department is to keep the historic site free of man-made interventions. Few cases of mishaps involving big coaches going up to Dhauli, have already come to the fore. This step will ensure that only small designated coaches reach the site and ferry the visitors. This will also help in reducing the number of big vehicles which used to stand near the main entrance of the site, creating congestion.”
Meanwhile, the state government is also toiling hard to negotiate with the shopkeepers, who have encroached and installed their small shops near the main entrance of the site. A letter from the tourism department to the sub collector, Bhubaneswar, refers to the directions of the collector, Khurda, who is also the chairman of the Dhauli Development Committee, to initiate talks with the makeshift shop owners so that those may be shifted to a suitable spot. The letter asks the sub collector to hold a talk with the shop owners to collectively come to a common solution.
Orissa Post had earlier reported about the plan of the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation to hand over the infrastructure managed by them to the state tourism department.
