Going to Taj? Ticket now valid for 3 hours

Your visit to the Taj Mahal will be capped from April 1. Archaeological Survey of India has decided that the entry ticket to the world heritage monument would be valid for only three hours.

Any visitor who wants to spend beyond three hours would have to pay extra. This would apply to all visitors.

ASI issued a public notice this week on this. “We are still working on a mechanism to decide the additional charges. We may levy charges for a fresh ticket as extension; another proposal is to levy additional hourly charges beyond the three-hour window. These issues are still being decided,” said a senior ASI official.

This would require checking of time stamps on tickets at entry and exit. “We will most likely require more manpower to check time stamps and levy additional charges,” said an official.

The move was necessitated by the surge in the number of visitors. “We’ve had situations where over 50,000 visitors come to Taj Mahal in a single day. The monument space is limited and we cannot extend that. We have to make do with the available area and manage visitors within that limited space. Sometimes it gets very difficult to manage the crowd. There are some visitors who come in early and do not leave till closing time and that creates additional stress,” said an ASI official, adding that limited-validity tickets are expected to sort it out.

At present, a Taj ticket costs Rs 40 for Indians, Rs 530 for SAARC nationals and Rs 1,000 for other