Tourism stakeholders in the State met Union Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy and brought to his notice the absence of basic facilities, such as hygienic toilets, washrooms, and convenience centres, at World Heritage Site of Hampi in Vijayanagara district.
The delegation, which included M. Ravi, State vice-president of Karnataka Tourism Forum, and Radhakrishna Holla, the State president of Karnataka Tourist Transporters Association, met Mr Reddy in Hampi, on Friday, when he came to inaugurate an international seminar on temple architecture. They told him the difficulties that tourists faced in Hampi owing to the lack of toilet facilities.
“Hampi is one of the important UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India that attract tourists from across the World. The sad thing is that the site lacks basic facilities such as hi-tech public toilets. We have been bringing it to the notice of concerned authorities for a long but little has happened so far. I recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi also. The Union Tourism Minister has assured that he would involve experts, individuals, and start-ups in building environment-friendly toilets and assign the task to them,” Mr Ravi told The Hindu.
Karnataka Tourism Minister B.S. Anand Singh, Transport Minister B. Sriramulu, Ballari MLA G. Somashekhar Reddy, State Tourism Department secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey, and Archaeological Survey of India Director General V. Vidyavathi were present.
