Kochi  :

The nearly five-century old Mattancherry Palace, a major tourist destination, may soon be raised to the status of Taj Mahal and Konark Sun Temple if a proposal by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Kerala circle, is accepted.

ASI, Kerala circle, Thrissur, has approached the New Delhi office requesting them to grant the coveted ‘Adarsh’ monument tag under the Adarsh Smarak Yojana to Mattancherry Palace aka Dutch Palace.

“We have submitted a proposal to the head office to award the ‘Adarsh’ monument tag to Mattancherry Palace. This will help us to get financial support from the Central government for maintaining and enhancing the facilities in the palace. This is the only monument in Kerala for which we have approached the head office for the tag,” said an ASI official.

The central government has accorded the tag to 25 monuments, including the Red Fort and Qutab Minar, out of 3,680 protected monuments of ASI. In Kerala, there are 26 protected monuments, including Mattancherry Palace and St Francis Church and the former is the top crowd puller under the ASI .

“We wrote to the head office considering the flow of tourists, including foreigners, to the palace. If we get the tag, we can develop many facilities for visitors such as Wi-Fi connectivity in the palace. This will help to raise the profile of the monument,” the ASI official said.

Facilities such as washrooms, drinking water, signboard, cafeteria, audio-visual centres, interpretation centres and encroachment-free areas will be provided by the ASI under the tag.

Nearly a thousand people visit the palace every day to see the mural paintings and historical artefacts exhibited there. Currently, there are no facilities available for visitors coming to the palace as the monument is situated on the land owned by Cochin Devaswom Board (CDB). The Pazhayannur Bhagavathy Temple is also situated near the Palace.

The dispute between the CDB and ASI over setting up a fence in between the palace and temple stopped the archaeology department from setting up facilities for visitors.

As per archaeology rules, new construction is prohibited in 100m around the heritage structure. Later, both parties discussed the issue and explored possibilities of setting up a fence in between the palace and temple without a construction.

“We have sent our engineer to the monument to look into the prospect of setting up a fence. We hope to sort out the issue in a month, but there is no response from CDB,” an official said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / by T C Sreemol, TNN / August 20th, 2015