Bengaluru: In a bid to ensure that the aesthetics of Nandi Hills is not lost and the pollution created by thousands of private vehicles traveling up and down the hill comes down, the Karnataka Tourism Vision Group (KTVG) has suggested to the tourism department to introduce electric buses from the parking point until the cable cars comes up. In fact, in the days to come, there will be special buses plying from Airport to Nandi Hills. This is not all; the tourism department is looking at creating a heritage district in that locality as Nandi Hills houses a 1,200 year old Yoganandeeshwara temple, and the birth place of M. Vishvesvaraya among other things, which is nearby.
V. Ravichandar, a member of Karnataka Tourism Vision Group points out, “The cable car is a government project and will not happen easily but we can bring in electric vehicles easily and start plying them. So we will have electric vehicles carrying people up and down from the parking point. We will also have cycles in place and those interested can take up cycling as well.” KTVG is currently conducting feasibility exercise pertaining to the project and soon they will figure out the number of such buses required initially to ferry the people among other things. The project will be implemented by KSTDC unlike cable car which will be on a PPP model.
This locality undoubtedly has a better scope to be converted into a heritage district. Apart from the 1,200 year old Yoganandeeshwara temple and birth place of Vishvesvaraya, Tipu Palace and Gandhi Nilaya.
“If someone is here in the city for two days and is in the airport, he or she can come and spend an entire day here. In fact, Bengalureans can plan a day out here and visit the various heritage spots,” Ravi adds.
Agreeing to the fact, tourism minister R.V. Despande said, “Nandi Hills is the closest destination so we are looking to develop it. We are trying to have a lot of activities in Nandi hills. There are many heritage spots in and around the hill. Once we introduce buses connecting Airport to Nandi Hills, many more people will be able witness the rich heritage of our state. Besides, our team has been preparing the DPR for cable car as well.” The tourism minister is in talks with Deputy Commissioner of Chikkaballapur to acquire 2 acres land under the tourism department for parking purposes.
On a week day, Nandi Hill witnesses over 3,000 visitors while on weekends and holidays it witnesses over 7,000 visitors. Jagadish from the Horticulture department says, “Majority of the visitors stay till 10.45 am and leave. About 40 percent of the visitors stay till afternoon. They visit the temple and there are 5-6 view points from where one can see Muddenahalli village, the birthplace of Sir M Vishveshvaraya, the International Airport, villages with lot of vegetation and the like. Again there are around 6-7 hills like Skandagiri and others which one can see from Nandi hill and it is a beautiful sight.”
On the pathetic condition of the roads, he says, “We have called the tender to repair the road from Fort entrance to the top hill. The work will start in another ten days and will be over in one month. After that the plans of tourism department will be slowly put into place.”
History of Nandi Hills
It is said that during the Chola period, Nandi Hills was called Ananda Giri meaning The Hill of Happiness. There is a famous story among the local people that Yoga Nandeeshwara performed penance here, and so it was named after him and that is why a temple of Yoga Nandeeshwara is situated on top of the hill. Nandi is also commonly called Nandidurga (Fort) because of the fort built here by the ruler Tipu Sultan.
PATA event boosting tourism in state
PATA Travel Mart 2015 that was held in the city recently was touted as a major achievement by the tourism department. The department considered it a huge success as it brought Karnataka into the global map. The state was able to showcase its beaches adventure sports, wildlife, hills and forests. Besides, over 30 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) totaling Rs 1,800 crore were signed at the PATA event.
Speaking about the outcome of the PATA event, Tourism Minister R V Deshpande said, “Due to PATA 2015 Karnataka has been exposed to 61 countries. Things will not change in a matter of 15 days or a month. But what we have been able to do here is create awareness about the rich heritage that we have. As per the PATA letter received by us, this is one of the best PATA event held recently with huge number of participation and lot of business taking place.” He further adds, “Marketing has been a concern and frankly speaking until recently we had not taken up marketing of the tourism destinations aggressively. The success of PATA can be stated considering the fact that for the first time we had a technology and investment forum in the history of PATA wherein we were able to showcase what we have as a tech city. The MOU’s signed in the event were mostly pertaining to wellness and resorts.”
V. Ravichandar, member of KTVG too opined the same and added, “The PATA event is a prestigious event and to have been able to bring so many delegates to the city is in itself a success.” The tourism minister adds, “We have 319 destinations altogether. In fact, many delegates planned trips to Hampi and other parts of the state.”
Bengaluru hosted the 38th edition of ‘Pacific Asia Travel Association Travel Mart’ (PATA) from September 8 till September 10 at Bangalore International Exhibition Center (BIEC). The tourism department aimed towards attracting a niche international audience to the country in general and Karnataka in particular.
