Ballari: The ruins of Hampi give you a sense of history, but visitors to the world heritage site may soon be able to see what this erstwhile capital of the Vijayanagar empire looked like in its hey day thanks to digital technology.
The Union Ministry of Culture is attempting to digitally recreate the original Hampi based on its ruins and historical information provided by the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) and Prof. H Chaluvaraj of the Hampi Kannada University. The project will be funded by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and executed by the IIT, New Delhi. Going by the officials concerned, the idea is to bring alive the tangible and intangible aspects of the ancient city applying advanced technology.
Mr P.L. Sahu, joint secretary, Ministry of Culture , who led a team of experts around Hampi to identify the monuments to be covered in the first phase of the project on Tuesday, said the experts team would prepare a project report and submit it to the Union Ministry of Culture and once it was approved, the IIT would get on the job.
"The funding for the digitisation project is being done by BEL as part of its corporate social responsibility," he explained. Once ready the digital representation of this ancient city will be on display at the museum at Kamalapur and the Lotus Mahal in Hampi. The project could take a year to execute in three phases, covering various monuments in each.
Ms Anupama Mallik from the IIT, New Delhi, said the Department of Science and Technology had done the spade work of the digitisation that would be used for it.
