Agra: Following a Supreme Court directive, authorities in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are switching to online ticketing for full moon sighting of the historical Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh's Agra much to the relief of visitors. The visitors will no more need to stand in queues and can book tickets 24 hours in advance by sitting at home and at a click of a mouse.
Senior advocate KC Jain of Agra had filed a petition in the Supreme Court requesting online ticketing at the Taj to do away with the arduous process of offline tickets. With this, tourists will no longer have to stand in long queues outside the ASI office in Agra. Following the SC's directions, the ASI started brainstorming on the matter.
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Full moon sighting at the Taj continued hassle-free till 1984 when the Taj Mahal was closed due to security reasons. The Supreme Court while hearing the petition of the tourism businessmen of Agra had permitted to reopen of the Taj Mahal for a moon sighting in November 2004. Following the court orders, the Taj Mahal was opened every month on the full moon for five days (i.e; full moon, two days before and two days after the full moon).
For this, tickets had to be bought a day before from the ASI's office on Mall Road, which was causing the visitors a lot of inconvenience. The Agra Development Foundation filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2019 regarding the problems faced by tourists due to offline ticketing. ASI's superintending archaeologist Rajkumar Patel said that a maximum of 400 tourists can visit the Taj Mahal at night in a day in eight slots of 30 minutes each. Patel said that on the orders of the Supreme Court, online tickets will be arranged for the night visits to the Taj Mahal. Regarding this, the department has started preparing to make guidelines, he said.
