After 12-year break, ASI hikes Taj Mahal ticket price by 200%

AGRA: In a bad news for lovers of the Taj Mahal and other historical buildings across country, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has hiked the ticket prices for monuments by a whopping 200 per cent in all categories after an interval of 12 years. For category 'A' monuments, which include World Heritage sites, ticket price has been raised from Rs 10 to Rs 30 for Indians and from Rs 250 to Rs 750 for foreigners.

Unlike monuments in rest of the country, visitors to Taj Mahal will have to pay even more due to an additional fee collected by Agra Development Authority (ADA) as 'toll tax'. Due to this, the new ticket rates at the Taj will be Rs 40 (Rs 10 towards toll tax) for Indians and Rs 1,250 (Rs 500 as toll tax) for foreigners.

The ASI finally issued preliminary notification to this effect on Tuesday. According to officials, a 45-day period will be given for admitting objections or suggestions from the public, and if everything goes well, the new rates will become applicable from the first week of November.

Visitors from SAARC and BIMSTEC countries, who are treated on a par with Indians, however, will be charged domestic rates. SAARC countries comprise Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan, besides India, while BIMSTEC includes Thailand and Myanmar besides India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.

ADA treats SAARC and BIMSTEC citizens as foreigners, so they will have to Rs 500 towards toll tax for visiting Taj. Altogether they will have to shell out Rs 530.

Notably, the ADA also wants to hike its toll tax further. In December 2014, it had sent a proposal to the state government a proposal to hike the toll tax from Rs 10 to Rs 40 from Indian visitors while Rs 750 in place of present Rs 500 from foreigners. The state government is yet to take a decision on this.

For category "B" monuments, the rates have been increased from Rs 5 to Rs 15 for Indians and Rs 100 to Rs 300 for foreigners.

The tourism leaders have already expressed their displeasure over the proposal and called an emergency meeting of all the organizations on Wednesday to chalk out their future course of action. They said such a move would severely affect the industry which is already facing a slump due to fall in number of tourists in Agra in the last three years.

Rajiv Tiwari, president of the Federation of Travel Agents of India, said, "This is not the time to raise the fee. This will further restrict the inflow of foreign tourists to Agra. These tourists, who were paying Rs 900 to see all the three world three heritage sites, will have to pay Rs 2,000 after new rates become applicable."