If the mandarins of Incredible India! plan to clean up the country’s tourist attractions to make them attractive to foreigners, they had better start with Hyderabad. Sanitation facilities at the city’s mosttouted tourist spots could do with, well, some sanitation facilities.
Take the 500-year-old Golconda fort. Though it has a toilet for visitors near the entrance, it has none anywhere else in its vast sprawl. And the pay-anduse loos at the entrance? Hear Yemeni visitor Ali Talpie, 26, describe them: “They stink. The closets leak and there are stains on the walls. Enough to frighten you away.” No wonder, visitors to the fort use the open spaces to relieve themselves, as in the picture above.
If Golconda is bad, the city’s other iconic building, the Charminar does not have a public convenience anywhere in the vicinity, clean or dirty. Visitors are presented with the sight of people relieving themselves right outside the traffic police station near the monument.
THIRSTY? SORRY!
If you plant to climb the 208 steps to reach Golconda’s Baradari, you better be prepared to carry along a load of water bottles along as well. Though there are drinking water joints installed along the pathway, they may not be of any help to a thirsty tourist as the water gets over from time to time with no hope of being replenished fast. “The water might have got over now. It will take time,” said one of the guards when asked.
But the lack of water proves a blessing for small-time hawkers who have a field day selling icecreams and soft drinks to tourists left with no other option.
RAYMOND’S BAR?
While the toilets at tourst spots are unspeakably and universally dirty, Express also found people using the vicinity of Monsieur Raymond’s tomb as an open-air bar. A gaggle of youth sat right next to the monument swigging from their bottles in broad daylight. Local people said that’s a common practice. “I see it every day,” said Shankar, a visitor at the Frenchman’s tomb on Monday.