Our heritage sites not only connect us to our civilisational past but play a major role in attracting tourists. So the question that lies here is: How to develop the heritage infrastructure and increase access to these sites? Patiala Foundation chief Ravee Singh Ahluwalia, who has done pilot projects like introducing E-cabs to encourage footfalls, has an answer. At the Exotica Tourism Summit organised by The Pioneer media group he said, “We need to work on sustainable development goals in tourism. That is the key to reviving interest in our heritage structures.”
iHeritage is an initiative taken by the Patiala Foundation to explore and recognise the heritage of the city on foot. He had organised a world event of GoUNESCO in September, 2016 where more than 500 residents of the city participated. The Heritage Walk was led by the then Hon’ble Deputy Commissioner Patiala and other dignitaries of the city. It was well received by the citizens. The second heritage walk was organised at Bahadurgarh Fort in March, 2018, led by IG Range Patiala. The third heritage walk was organised at Ghuram village in September, 2018. It was led by Chief Secretary to Punjab’s Chief Minister.
“When we went to various monuments, we saw that some of these sites were not even conserved properly. That would need a lot of investment. So we thought of taking this initiative of revival forward by generating a local economy around the site,” said he.
The foundation conducted heritage walks at unexplored sites of Punjab and have explored around seven sites till date. Ahluwalia proudly shared, “Patiala, from where I come, is 257 years old. We have sites like Sangol which date back to first century, they are there from the time of the Harappan civilisation. We also have Sultanpur Lodhi where the first guru of Sikhs spent his 14 years. We recently did a heritage walk there in collaboration with the Punjab Government. The infrastructure of these sites can only develop when the governments recognise their potential and more people visit.”
Through the project, the foundation takes school kids to these sites. Till date they have taken around 5,000 students so that people become aware about it.
He has pioneered the Patiala GreenCABS, an environment-friendly project by starting E-rickshaws on speed dial. “We did an experiment in 2014. We conducted personality development classes for auto-rickshaw drivers and trained them as tourist-guides of Patiala. We took this initiative so that on the way to the sites, the rickshaw drivers could tell people about the background and history of the place,” said he. It acts as a skill enhancement for them. They can now double their income within the same time. In a small city, where Ola and Uber can’t operate, auto-rickshaws serve as a good means of transport. If we upgrade them, they can come into the mainstream.
“Instead of motivating the corporates to allocate CSR funds, it’s better to widen the scope by asking them to give protection to a particular heritage site under their CSR initiative,” added he.
