Heritage sites, museums to open tomorrow after 6-month closure

Bangladesh government has decided to open all heritage sites and museums under the Department of Archaeology on a limited scale from tomorrow after six months' closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"We had proposed the cultural affairs ministry to reopen the country's heritage site on a limited scale by maintaining health guidelines. The ministry approved our application. I got the approval order today and will open heritage sites on a limited scale by maintaining proper health guidelines," Md Hannan Mia, director general of the archaeology department told The Daily Star today.

"Our new fiscal year (2020-21) has already started and we set an economical target of Tk 8 crore. We are expecting around 49 lakh tourists in this ongoing FY," said the DG.

After the coronavirus pandemic hit Bangladesh, all heritage sites were closed around the end of March.

The government lost a huge amount of non-tax revenues and thousands of people lost their income source and had to pass very difficult days during the shutdown.

Tota Mia (55), a resident of Gakul in Bogura's Sadar upazila used to sell pamphlets to tourists for Tk 2000-3000 every day. "Every day I come here (Mahasthangarh) hoping to see that the site is open but to no avail. My only income was from selling the history-based pamphlets but now it has stopped," he said. But hopefully from tomorrow, Tota Mia can resume his little business.

According to the archaeology department, there are 21 heritage museums and 518 heritage sites in Bangladesh under the archaeology department. Visitors and tourists need entry fees for 21 museums and around 10-12 archaeological sites.

In 2018-19 fiscal year, the department targeted to have at least 48 lakh visitors. A whopping 58.45 lakh tourists visited the sites that year.

The economic target of the concerned department was fixed around Tk 5 crores and they earned Tk 6.92 crores in FY 2018-19.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, archaeology department could not achieve their target of visitors and income set for the fiscal year 2019-20.

"Bangladesh tourism sector mostly depends on heritage tourism. Tourists and researchers from abroad mostly visit the country for the interest of archaeology," said DG Hannan Mia.

The department's target was 44 lakh visitors but only 32 lakh tourists visited the heritage museums and sites in 2019-20 FY. The economic target was Tk 8.54 crores and the department only earned Tk 5.34 crores in 2019-20 FY.

In Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions, there are around 205 historical sites and 6 heritage museums. Tourists have to pay entry fees for six museums and four heritage sites in the two divisions, according to the archaeology department.

"We earned less than our target in 2019-20 FY due to the closure of all sites and museums during the pandemic. We lost national and international tourists in Mahasthangarh, Paharpur Buddha Bihar Tajhaat Jamindar Bari, Rabindra Kacharibari on major occasions like Eid, Rabindranath's Janmo Joyonty, and Mujib Borsho," said Naheed Sultana, Regional Director of Rajshahi and Rangpur division's regional office (Bogura) of the archaeology department.

"On every big occasion around 3-4 lakh tourists visit one major site and museum in a day," said Naheed Sultana.