The objective is to package Madurai’s heritage with nightlife and food
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
The Madurai City Corporation has chalked out heritage walks and heritage cycling that would be conducted mostly during the night to highlight the nightlife of Madurai.
Madurai is popularly known as Thoonganagaram or the city that never sleeps and Mayor V Indirani Ponvasanth recently presented the idea during the corporation budget meeting. The move is intended to boost tourism in Madurai after Covid-19. The objective is to package Madurai’s heritage with nightlife and food.
Corporation commissioner, K P Karthikeyan, pointed out that the project was in its initial stage. “These heritage walks and cycling will be held during the nights so that the tourists can go back to those places the next day (if they wished). Heritage cycling will be designed to introduce Madurai’s iconic streets to the tourists.” The city has also proposed to create cycling tracks at Vaigai North Bank road and Teppakulam for the city dwellers. The Race Course road in the north zone will be provided with walking track, entertainment features and cycle track as well.
The present heritage structures go back in history as early as 12th to 13th centuries. The NGO developed two heritage circuits inside the city. One began from Nayak’s Mahal to Meenakshi temple’s east tower that dates back to Maravarman Sundara Pandyan I, covering spots like Pathuthoon, Vilakkuthoon, Vittavasal, Pudumandapam and Rayagopuram
DHAN foundation, a city-based NGO, has been holding monthly heritage walks for years. During Covid-19 the heritage walk was moved to a virtual tour but the NGO covered the entire district for heritage walks. Collaborating with the NGO, the city corporation has laid out coloured blocks on roads to the heritage structures some years ago. “It will be a very good initiative if the corporation takes out heritage walks to showcase our rich culture to visiting tourists,” said K P Bharathi, advisor to DHAN’s Tourism for Development project.
The present heritage structures go back in history as early as 12th to 13th centuries. The NGO developed two heritage circuits inside the city. One began from Nayak’s Mahal to Meenakshi temple’s east tower that dates back to Maravarman Sundara Pandyan I, covering spots like Pathuthoon, Vilakkuthoon, Vittavasal, Pudumandapam and Rayagopuram.
The second one that started from Meenakshi temple’s west tower ended in the remnants of Nayak’s fort at West Gate covering St George’s Anglican Church, West Masi street building where Gandhi changed his attire, Koodal Alagar temple and Kajimar mosque.
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