Luknow :
Nearly 200 citizens took part in Lucknow Heritage Walk-Kaiserbagh and Lucknow On Cycle (LOC), organised on the occasion of World Tourism day by the state department of tourism along with The Times of India and NBT with support from NGO Itihas which is working in the field of heritage conservation. Old and the young evinced special interest to know more about Lucknow.
Major General R S Malave who participated in the cycling event termed it as a good and timely beginning. “We are trying to create a similar heritage circuit in Lucknow Cantonment, which has heritage buildings such as Dilkusha and will co-ordinate with the district administration for the project,” said Malave.
Retired bank employee P K Shinde was of the view that such events must be held at frequent intervals. Shinde said, “Cycling on roads of Lucknow and on a Sunday was a fantastic experience. There were many things we came to know. Such events will help even tourists and visitors learn something about the city.” Ramkrishna from Hyderabad, along with Telugu speaking Lucknowites Satish and Satya Narayan said, “The Biryani link between Hyderabad and Lucknow is there, but events like this would attract people from far and wide.”
Conducting the walk, Smita Vats highlighted the cooling features of Taikhana. Meanwhile, a monkey hopped from a banyan tree and sat on a participant’s cycle for five minutes, giving all opportunity click pictures.
Buoyed by the availability of cycle tracks, Lucknow district administration is mulling some in Old City, especially in the Hussainabad area. District magistrate Raj Shekhar said, “We are proposing cycle tracks around Bada Imambara, Chhota Imambara, Clock Tower, Picture Gallery, KGMU, Tile Wale Masjid, etc. Once the cycle track is in place, Hussainabad Trust will start a free cycle kiosk with 100 bicycles for tourists at Bada Imambara, free of cost for 2-3 hours on deposit of photocopy of ID card.”
The DM went to Bada and Chhota Imambaras, Clock Tower, Rumi Gate, Satkhanda and Kaiserbagh. The DM said such events should be made a part of Lucknow’s annual tourism calendar. “It was a ride of around 6-7 kilometres. It was a great fun and also rare learning experience for us. It is a healthy tourism practice which will save lot of time, parking space and have added health advantage. But it needs more coordination with tourist police, co-ordination with LMC, traffic police, an escort vehicle with loud hailer and need of cycle track in the above areas. Once stabilised it will be a special attraction of Lucknow tourism,” the DM added.
Cold, filtered water 500 litres each at Bara and Chhota Imambara and 200 litres at Picture Gallery are also being planned. DG tourism Amrit Abhijat complained about the lack of cleanliness on Kaiserb
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / September 28th, 2015