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Taj Mahal reopens as coronavirus cases continue to rise in India Taj Mahal reopens as coronavirus cases continue to rise in India
(32 minutes later)
Monument in northern city of Agra opens to visitors after being closed for six monthsMonument in northern city of Agra opens to visitors after being closed for six months
India has reopened its famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, as authorities reported 86,961 new coronavirus infections with no signs yet of a peak in the number of infections. The Taj Mahal, India’s “monument to love”, has reopened after a six-month hiatus with special rules introduced – including no touching the white marble walls of the mausoleum built for a Mughal emperor’s favourite wife.
A Chinese national and a visitor from Delhi were among the first to step into the white marble tomb built by a 17th-century Mughal emperor for his wife when it opened at sunrise on Monday, ending six months of closure. Only 5,000 visitors are allowed daily – a quarter of usual capacity – and all have their temperature taken by staff wearing face shields, masks and gloves.
Daily visitor numbers have been capped at 5,000, compared with an average of 20,000 before the pandemic. Tickets are being sold only online, with fewer than 300 bought on the first day. Visitors can whip off their masks for a photo, but security personnel are quick to remind them to put them back on once the shutter has been pressed.
Visitors will have their temperatures taken and must adhere to advice to keep a safe distance from each other. And the famous bench where people usually sit to have their picture taken has been laminated in plastic, to help cleaning between every photo op.
“We are following all Covid-19 protocols,” said Vasant Swarnkar, superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India, which oversees the Taj in the northern city of Agra, among other historical monuments. “We have all the safety measures in place,” said Vasant Swarnkar from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which oversees the Unesco world heritage site in Agra, south of Delhi.
India’s coronavirus tally of 5.49 million infections lags behind only the US, with 6.79 million, a figure the south Asian could could overtake in the next few weeks at its current rate of increase. “We want to send out the message that things are not so bad and you will be safe if you follow the instructions.”
The death toll of 87,882 was up 1,130 from the previous day, health ministry figures showed. Neither the new rules nor the dangers of catching the coronavirus put off a steady stream of visitors to the breathtaking 17th-century monument on Monday morning.
But as a proportion of its population, India’s toll is still small compared with countries such as the US, Brazil and Britain. “The moment I heard the Taj is reopening I decided to visit. I had been planning it for so many years,” said 25-year-old Debargha Sengupta, an engineer who took a train from Allahabad 500km (300 miles) away.
Faced with the deepest economic contraction in decades, the government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, is pushing to relax pandemic restrictions so jobs and businesses can resume. “It’s amazing, it’s incredible. I had read about the Taj in books and seen the pictures but to see it [for] real is so amazing,” he told AFP.
“We can survive for another four to six months: after that we will have to take some serious calls,” said Abid Naqvi, who reported bookings at his boutique hotel drop to zero overnight after India’s abrupt lockdown in March. “I am not worried about the coronavirus. It’s been six months and I am totally fed up now. We cannot sit at home forever.”
Until then, the 13-room Ekaa Villa, which opened in Agra last year at a cost of almost £770,000, had been operating at close to capacity. The return of visitors is a huge relief to the many people of Agra who depend on Taj Mahal tourists for their livelihoods.
Tourism contributed about £185bn, or 9.2% of India’s gross domestic product in 2018, employing more than 42 million people, World Travel and Tourism Council data show. “It was so frustrating to sit idle at home for six months,” said an elated Zahid Baig, a rickshaw driver.
However, foreign tourists were unlikely to return until at least April, said Manu PV, secretary of industry body the Association of Tourism Trade Organisations India (ATTOI), a month that traditionally ends the tourist season. “Agra looked like a ghost city without the Taj tourists,” he said.
And a confusing system of regional lockdowns and quarantine rules is deterring domestic tourists. “People don’t want to go on holiday,” he added. “They are very worried. There is the fear factor.“ The reopening comes as the Indian government seeks to get Asia’s third-largest economy moving again even as virus cases rise.
So far it has recorded more than 5.4 million coronavirus cases – second only to the US, which it could overtake in the coming weeks.
A lockdown imposed in March left tens of millions out of work almost overnight, while the economy shrank by almost a quarter between April and June.
“People have suffered a lot and it is time the country opens up fully,” said 35-year-old Ayub Sheikh, a bank official visiting with his wife and baby daughter.
“We are not afraid of the virus. If it has to infect us, it will,” he told AFP.
“Not many people are dying now. I don’t think it is going to go away soon. We have to get used to it now.”
There were few foreigners present on Monday as India has not yet opened up to international tourists.
But Ainhoa Parra, from Spain – who lives in India – did make the trip.
“Coronavirus is in every country,” Parra told AFP after posing for a selfie with her husband and two friends.
“We have to be careful, but if we have to get infected we will.”
The allure of the monument, commissioned in about 1630 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, looks set to endure.
“Taj has a magnetic effect on people. They are crazy about it,” said ASI’s Vasant.
“Everyone wants to visit it at least once in their lifetime.”