Steps are afoot by the Union Ministry of Culture in association with the Indian Institute of Technology New Delhi and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Union government undertaking, to give a digital touch in a bid to make Hampi, the erstwhile seat of the Vijayanagar empire, more tourist-friendly.
If things go as planned, very soon tourists will be able to know more about Hampi, the monuments, history, art and architecture with the help of digital technology, and they can return happily with an evergreen memory.
There are also plans to enable tourists to have a feel of some of the monuments and remote places at the world heritage site, which they find it difficult to access (Matanga hills is one such place), with the help of digital technology.
To start with, there are plans to upgrade the museum at Kamalapur with the help of digital technology and a couple of monuments and gradually, cover the other monuments in a phased manner.
A team of officials, including P.L. Sahu, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture and Chief Executive Officer National Cultural Fund, New Delhi, Anupama Mallik from the IIT New Delhi, K.M. Shivakumaran, General Manager (HR) BEL, K. Moortheshwari, Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India Mini Circle Hampi, went round Hampi to identify the monuments to be covered in the first phase.
“We will prepare a project report and submit it to the Union Ministry of Culture. Once it is approved, IIT will execute the work of adding digital touch to some of the monuments and up-gradation of the museum in a year. The funding for the digitisation project is being done by BEL as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility,” Mr. Sahu told The Hindu.
Ms. Anupama Mallik said that the Department of Science and Technology has done the spade work of digitisation which is being used for the proposed project. .
K.P. Garg, Deputy General Manager BEL (CSR), and Thejasvi, Assistant Superintendent, were present.