Monday, December 24

Royal Mart

There is an awe-inspiring charisma concealed in the sleeves of Madhya Pradesh which needs to be explored by tourists and the department as well. Madhya Pradesh is called the heart of India, not only because of its location in the centre of the country, but also because it has been home to a rich cultural heritage in the form of innumerable monuments, exquisite temples, palaces, magnificent Stupas that doll up the lush landscape of MP. Bordered by six states, it is equally close to major tourist destinations from the North, South, East and West. Seeing the tourist preferences and comparison to other states the department is gearing for the mode which has been missing since inception but still without a blueprint.

A good initiative but not at all planned with time and market sense was witnessed in the first heritage buyers and sellers meet on Dec 18 2007.It was organised at Hotel Jhenuma not run by Tourist department. Bearing in mind the interest of tourists, neighbors and across the world the tourism department took a step to explore the possibilities in developing heritage buildings. Invitations were sent to the owners of their palaces, havelis and garhis, old houses and at the same time buyers were approached to take up these properties. More than 70 former Nawabs, Maharajas, Maharanis, Begums, Zamindars came to sell /joint venture their properties to the buyers like Taj, orchid, Park, Kama and Welcome groups who participated.
The presentation made on the basis of survey done of state 726 heritage buildings — 35 with the ASI, 103 with the state archaeology department, 313 (not protected monuments) with the state government and 275 in private hands were faulty which raised eyebrows and bad taste with the owners and the buyers.
Only few of the participants came with proper presentations rest were clueless how to sell their properties as they were not informed well in advance.Madhya Pradesh is richer than any other state in India as far as heritages and history are concerned. Due to lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure and evocative initiative the heritage buildings have not been tapped so far. But with the methodological and conventional approach something better can be seen in the future.

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