It looks like business as usual near Charminar as throngs of people mill around the monument, haggle with the vendors, drink tea and click photographs of the monument.
“Earlier thousands of people would come. Now, we have about 200 people visiting everyday. On October 2, we had approximately 300 people visiting the monument,” says an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) official at the site.
It is not just Charminar and its surrounding areas that make it appear as the worst of COVID pandemic is behind us. Indira Park, Lumbini Park, Necklace Road, Durgam Cheruvu park, the cable stayed bridge, malls and other public places, are seeing large number of people thronging them. The park abutting Osman Sagar lake has been closed for the past few months, but that has not stopped people from driving to the edge of the lake and inquiring about the park, according to officials at the reservoir.
The crowd at Durgam Cheruvu bridge shows how citizens are trying to embrace the outdoors. The walkway on one side of the bridge is perpetually jammed through the day and even evening. “The numbers go up as it gets darker. Those nearest the bridge do more business than us,” says the owner of a tiffin centre that has popped up a month back on the stretch near the bridge. The sidewalk is now a buzzing business centre where snacks, tea and coffee vendors have appeared out of nowhere and are patronised by the visitors to the bridge.
Even the Golconda Fort has seen higher footfalls from the time it reopened a few weeks back. “We used to have a few thousand visitors per day. Now, the numbers are in hundreds. On October 2 holiday, we had 1,200 visitors,” said an ASI official.
Part of the reason for low number of visitors at these national sites is due to the zero-contact ticketing process. Visitors can either book online or scan the QR code at the site, pay digitally and flash the coded ticket for entry. At Chowmahalla Palace, which re-opened on October 3, the number of visitors is low. “We are getting under 100 per day in comparison to 600-1,200 visitors before the lockdown,” said a staffer at the palace.