The capital of the central State of the country, Bhopal, often referred to as the ‘City of Lakes’ and boasts of some of the world’s largest man-made water bodies and historical culture has performed poorly in attracting the tourists from the country and abroad as per the figures released by the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board on Friday. As per the figures, Madhya Pradesh witnessed an influx of more than 11 crore tourists in 2023 with Ujjain bagging the top spot with more than 3 crore domestic and foreign tourists. However, the State capital has been ranked tenth in the ranking with only 19.5 lakh voyagers visiting the city. While visiting the heritage buildings, the reason of the city for not receiving the footfall of tourists for clearly evident. The places are surrounded by filth all over and adding to that the encroachments have leave no stone unturned in making the things happen. Also, adding a cherry to the cake is the negligence of the authorities who fail to recognise the city as a treasure of heritage and art lovers and perennially ignore the plight of the buildings.

 

The citizens, who while talking to ‘The Hitavada’ expressed their reactions on these numbers and slammed the Government for turning a blind eye towards the heritage grandeur of the city. “The city is filled with wonders which are enough for developing the city into a tourism hotspot. But no one ever takes a step in developing them.” A resident of the city told on the condition of anonymity. Significantly, the city contains various structures which stand tall yet neglected. These prominently include Fatehgarh fort, Taj Mahal palace, Jagdishpur fort and others. The situations has been aggravated by tagging some of the previously mentioned sites as haunted. Encroachments are a recurrent problem in the city and has also affected the tourism. Another individual standing at a bus stand said that the city can also perform better in religious tourism. “We have the largest mosque in the continent but the state takes no efforts to develop capacities at the holy site to transform the place into a major attraction for tourists.”

 

He alleged. Some of the citizens there also mentioned that the city has to explore its potential in eco tourism in order to be developed as a tourist destination. They said that the lakes of the state including the upper lake and lower lake which are also a Ramsar site are suffering from several water contamination and related issues and the concerned authorities should sprung into action to eradicate such issues. The Managing Director of the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board, Dr Illaya Raja T recently announced a new museum being set up in the city near Moti Mahal but the organisation should also consider reviving the old structures which are struggling and are currently in a dilapidated condition and are crying for the attention of the authorities.