Audio guide facility for world heritage sites in TN soon

J V Siva Prasanna Kumar

Chennai: The conventional practise of providing human guides to world heritage sites in Tamil Nadu will soon be a thing of the past. For, the state Tourism Department has come out with an innovative means of alluring foreign tourists to four among the five world heritage sites in the state.

It has readied the audiocassettes to serve as "authentic guides" to foreign nationals visiting the Mamallapuram near here, Brihadisvara temple in Thanjavur, Iravadisvara temple in Darasuram, and Brihadisvara temple in Gangaikondacholapuram. The other world heritage site in the state, which is the mountain railway at Nilgiris completed in 1908, has not been included in this itinerary.

These five are among the 26 sites in India out of 788 places across the globe declared as world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The audio guide concept makes a detour from providing (human) guides and eliminates chances for fleecing the tourists under the pretext of conducting them around the monuments. Moreover, the tourists need not hunt for guides or get duped by unauthorised guides who may not be able to furnish the correct particulars.

Among the other things, the audio"guides" provide information in a sequential order on the places. "These cassettes are compact and would render good 'service' to the foreign tourists," an official told this newspaper.

"The tourist has to carry a small lightweight digital audio player and immediately after arriving at the site, the tourist could press a button on the player and hear a recorded commentary on the spot in his or her own language," the official added.

The cassettes are multi-lingual and would come in handy in marketing initiatives abroad. The cassettes have been evolved prior to the notification for the bye-elections to the Madurai Central Assembly constituency and also the civic bodies polls.

However, the authorities could not organise a function to launch the audio guides service in view of the election commission's model code of conduct that has come into effect. In all probability, the service would be launched later this month once the elections conclude.

The Rock cut monuments at Mamallapuram, which has been attracting tourists apart, the UNESCO has classified the Brihadisvara temple of Thanjavur, the Temple of Gangaikondacholisvaram and the Iravadisvara temple at Darasuram, as the three great 11^th and 12^th century Chola Temples.

E.o.m.12.11.06