Tourists can know it all via cultural atlas at sites

Chennai: Aiming to provide more prominence to the ancient cultural and heritage centres/sites in Tamil Nadu, the state government will for the first time evolve a cultural atlas to help the tourists gain more insight into such destinations.

Also, apart from establishing tourist information centre and a site museum each at Kancheepuram and Mamallapuram for the benefit of international and domestic visitors, the government has announced to bring out audio and video guides for prominent destinations.

Winding up the debate on the demand for grants for his department in the Assembly on Wednesday, tourism minister Vellamandi N. Natarajan said the cultural atlas would be of immense help to tourists in knowing about the importance of the spots. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has ordered to prepare the cultural atlas at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, he said.

While the two tourist information centres and site museums would be established at a total cost of Rs 2 crore, the audio and video guide facilities and mobile app (for information on the tourist destinations) would be developed at an outlay of Rs 50 lakh.

In addition to setting up of a souvenir design cell for producing mementos with handicrafts products for the benefit of visitors, for Rs 50 lakh, the government would hold cultural events at Kalaivanar Arangam, Chennai; Maragatha Park in Mamallapuram and Saraswathy Mahal in Thanjavur during week-ends.

The boating yards under the control of Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) would be desilted and 20 TTDC hotels would be powered through solar energy, the minister announced.