Agra :

The city will have its own air-conditioned Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus service akin to Delhi very soon. With an aim to popularize city’s monuments apart from the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, the UP tourism department plans to connect all such places of interest through this bus service.

A discussion in this regard was held during a high-level meeting in Lucknow on Monday and the Agra regional office was asked to prepare a proposal in this regard. The next meeting of the tourism department is scheduled to be held in Agra on July 20.

Regional tourist officer Dinesh Kumar said there were “several other monuments worth a visit”. He said that the proposed bus service would aim to prevent tourists from leaving the city after visiting the Taj and the Agra Fort. “Easy access to such monuments will tempt tourists to stay in the city for a longer time,” he said.

Mehtab Bagh, Sikandara and Itimad-ud-Daulah are some of the sites the HOHO bus service is likely to make a stop, he added

In Delhi, under the HOHO bus service, tours are conducted in specially designed buses which ply along a route, wherein tourists can board or alight at any of the pick-up or drop points. The route covers all major tourist destinations in Delhi, while monuments’ tickets and guides have been made available to the tourists on the bus itself.

In another decision, the UP tourism department will construct two of the three proposed parking lots in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal, while the other one will be built by the Agra Development Authority.

Directions were also issued to complete the ongoing land-scraping work at Shah Jahan garden, located in front of the Taj, by July-end. Moreover, officials were asked to build an interpretation centre at Fatehpur Sikri in accordance with the Mughal architecture.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Agra / by Aditya Dev, TNN / July 08th, 2014