A consulting firm hired by the Union Ministry of Tourism conducted a feasibility study in various places in Madurai on Monday, including the world-famous Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, to assess the potential for undertaking tourism-related development works.
Official sources told The Hindu that a Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) consultant from Hyderabad, P. Srikanth, conducted a preliminary assessment at four places here including King Thirumalai Naick Palace, Gandhi Memorial Museum and the Mariamman Teppakulam, which is a sub-temple of the Meenakshi temple.
The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services is a leading infrastructure development, finance and consulting firm that works in tourism, urban infrastructure, area development, transportation and environment sectors.
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Proposals given
The consultant was assisted by officials from the Departments of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) and Tourism. He also interacted with local officials here and ascertained their proposals.
The main objective behind the visit was to increase the inflow of foreign and domestic tourists to Madurai. In the calendar year 2011, the Temple City attracted a total of 79 lakh domestic tourists and 65,000 foreign tourists.
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Preliminary work
Sources said that while entertaining the officials’ proposals, the consultant would also make new proposals of his own. Further, this was only a preliminary visit and based on his report, at least two more visits would be undertaken by a larger team from IL and FS.
Those teams were also likely to hold detailed discussions with the district administration and discuss various proposals.
The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department officials had suggested installing illuminative lights for the towers of Meenakshi temple besides beautification works for its Golden Lotus Tank, where a Rs. 50-lakh project was underway to ensure permanent water storage.