ECR abuzz once again as tourists throng hotspots

ECR abuzz once again as tourists throng hotspots

Footfalls At Muttukadu, Mudaliarkuppam & Mamallapuram Show Significant Appreciation

Yogesh.Kabirdoss@timesgroup.com

23.12.2020

Months after being shut for tourists due to the Covid-19 pandemic, East Coast Road (ECR), the city’s entertainment corridor, is bustling with activity. Tourist attractions dotting the scenic highway between Muttukadu, Mudaliarkuppam and Mamallapuram are witnessing a surge in footfalls, bringing back business and cheering all. While most of the visitors to the first two spots are from Chennai and its outskirts, the shore town is abuzz with travellers from Karnataka at weekends.

Footfalls at the boathouses maintained by the Tami Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) at Muttukadu and Mudaliarkuppam have already reached pre-Covid levels, while the turnout at the Pallava-era monuments at Mamallapuram, reopened a week ago, is 50% of last year’s figures. Hotels in and around Mamallapuram are reporting 80% occupancy during weekends even as theme parks are seeing a revival.

MGM Dizzee World in Muttukadu has been reporting footfalls that are 25% of the numbers in 2019. “There has been a rise in the number of visitors, though it is not on a par with pre-Covid times. During weekends (Saturday and Sunday) in 2019, we used to get 4,000 visitors. Now, we get 1,000 visitors,” said assistant general manager S Krishnamurthy. At the neighbouring Dakshina Chitra museum, there has been a surge in the number of domestic visitors, a museum official said.

Both officials and guides look forward to having international travellers, who form a chunk of visitors at the leisure facilities along ECR till Mamallapuram. The town with the fabled shore temple, which houses several other Unesco-tagged monuments as well, has seen the number of tourists rise since December 14. The guides are smiling. N Yuvaraj, a TTDC-licensed tour guide at Mamallapuram, said at least 20,000 people may have visited the town on Sunday. “We have been seeing Karnataka registered vehicles of late. The numbers spiralled only after the entry to monuments was allowed for the public,” he said.

But, many complain that accessing tickets for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)- maintained monuments. R Stalin, a guide, said visitors were facing problems in purchasing offline tickets as cash and debit cards are not allowed. “This has inconvenienced visitors some of who are walking off in a huff,” he said.

When contacted, sources in the ASI denied the charges and said that cash transactions at the ticket counters at the various monuments had been made available since Saturday.