Facilitation centre to elucidate Ajanta sculptures

AURANGABAD: Interpretation of sculptures and murals at the World Heritage sites of Ajanta and Ellora caves near here will no longer be a problem for tourists, with a facilitation centre coming up near the prehistoric caves.

Equipped with replicas of the ancient caves and multimedia guides, the visitor facilitation centre, being built at a cost of Rs 100 crore, outside the twin caves is already underway and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) hopes to inaugurate it by the end of 2008.

"In its recently conducted survey, National Geographic has said that Ajanta-Ellora is the most sustainable heritage site in Asia. However, they have also came down hard for the lack of an interpretation centre," Bhushan Gagrani, MTDC Managing Director, said.

The facilitation centre would be helpful since visitors often cannot afford to pay for guides. Moreover, the 1,500-year-old paintings cannot be illuminated as it would affect their longevity and there is the problem of shutting the cave complex each evening, he added.

Caves number 1, 2, 16 and 17 of the Ajanta caves complex, comprising a total of 30 caves, which have the maximum paintings will be recreated at the centre while there is also a similar project coming up at the base of Ellora caves that are famous for their architecture.

"Greater emphasis will be laid on multimedia and audio- visual aids to help the visitors. Seventy per cent of the paintings will be recreated digitally through photographs which have been taken while the rest will be done manually by artisans," Gagrani said.