Coronavirus: Taj Mahal reopens under new restrictions

India's 17th-century tourist attraction, Taj Mahal, reopens on Monday after being shut down for 3 months due to the Covid-19 outbreak and its complications, with new rules and regulations to be considered.

New measures and rules for Taj Mahal re-opening

As of Monday 6 July, Taj Mahal is only expecting 5000 visitors per day, divided into two groups. All tourists must comply with wearing their face masks all the time, and refrain from touching the marble surfaces of the monument.

Taj Mahal, the mausoleum built in the northern city of Agra by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, in a 22-year effort, used to have far higher number visitors on a normal day that could have reached 80000 per day at peak time.

Disinfecting and sanitizing measures are highly considered

The federal tourism ministry announced in a tweet the re-opening of Taj Mahal along with other monuments, assuring that all sanitization measures and safety protocols will be considered. "All centrally protected monuments & sites shall be bound by the protocols like sanitization, social distancing & other health protocols," the statement said.

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However, an official at the local district administration who preferred to remain anonymous noted that they are not expecting any visitors, because the whole area around Taj Mahal is filled with containment zones where shops are shut down and lockdown is strictly implemented. "We don’t expect visitors here because clusters around the Taj, including shops and hotels are closed," the source said.

Coronavirus in India

India has reported, on Sunday, a record number of new confirmed cases discovered in one day (24,850 cases) and more than 600 deaths, while the country has witnessed and an overall of 673,165 cases since the start of the pandemic, to grow one of the most-affected nations globally by Covid-19.