Even as the nation celebrates the Taj Mahal's inclusion in a list of the seven wonders of the world, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has managed to scupper an ambitious conservation project funded by the Tata Group's Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL). The Rs 14-crore project under the National Culture Fund (NCF) was kickstarted when the Group's chairman, Ratan Tata, signed an MoU with Ananth Kumar, the then minister for culture, in 2001. The first part of the plan, to create two visitors' centres at the Taj Mahal, was well underway when the ASI chose to inform the Supreme Court about it as a matter of "precaution" because it involved opening up a boundary wall-a wall that was built in 1922 and was not part of the original 1631 construction. The result: work on the visitors' centre on the eastern gate has now been stalled for over two years; that on the western gate has not even begun, and IHCL has written to ASI that it cannot continue with the project despite having invested Rs 2 crore of money and the time of some of the world's finest conservationists (from Bernard Feilden to Milo Beach) in the project. So much so that even Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni says, "In all deference to the Supreme Court, I wish it would make a pronouncement on this so that the work can begin again."

The irony is that when the UNESCO World Heritage Convention committee met in Christ church, New Zealand, last month, it commended the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative (TMCC) project for having greatly helped in generating awareness on the Taj Mahal. A project that Shirin Batliwala, vice-president, food and beverage, IHCL, now says "cannot carry on". Former director-general, ASI, Babu Rajeev, who is now a consultant to the Ministry of Culture, says ASI "erred on the side of caution" by taking the issue to the Supreme Court. ASI Agra Circle Superintendent D. Dayalan agrees the work has stopped for almost two years now and security screening machines are languishing-but adds that he referred what is essentially a conservation matter to the Supreme Court because it is "monitoring all activity around the Taj Mahal".

ASI spends almost Rs 50 lakh a year on the maintenance and conservation of the Taj Mahal, the most viewed monument in India, with almost 10,000 visitors every day. The aim of TMCC was to create welcoming entrances, beautify the garden and upgrade the water system. The six-year-long project, says Batliwala, has "seen a lot of back and forth, with several changes of DGs at ASI as well as member-secretaries of NCF". During its patience-testing course, IHCL consulted some of the best conservationists in India and abroad on the historical accuracy of the plans. One of the experts, art historian Ebba Koch, traced the visitors' centres idea to khawasspuras(servants' quarters), which were conceived as residential quarters for the sentries of Mumtaz Mahal's mausoleum. As Koch writes in her report submitted to the ASI, the courtyards had no religious significance, which led to their gradual disuse and then ruin. The TMCC project hoped not only to revive the quarters but also provide for a comprehensive visitor management plan-based on a survey undertaken by TMCC, which showed, among other problems, the glaring absence of a site map, poor standard of toilets and inappropriately placed drinking water counters.

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