Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) initiative for ‘appsolute’ watch on 25 sites

The visitors and tourists to ancient marvels such as the Big Temple and the Mamallapuram Shore Temple can now instantly post their complaints about poor maintenance of the heritage monuments — thanks to the Swachh Paryatan mobile app launched by the Union Ministry of Tourism recently. 

The mobile app, available for android mobiles, will enable the people to click pictures of the ill-maintained areas or unclean atmosphere in and around the monument and upload it with remarks. “The app will automatically send an SMS to the nodal officer of Archaeological Survey of India concerned for speedy action,” an ASI official in Thanjavur told DT Next.

According to him, a confirmation SMS will be sent to the complainant once the issue is resolved. “This app initiative will be a success only when the citizens and tourists, the largest stakeholders in the preserving and protecting the monuments, participate actively in it,” he added. 

This project is being implemented by the Ministry of Tourism through Delhi eGovernance Society (DeGS) and National Informatics Centre (NIC). 

At present, only 25 monuments protected by ASI have been identified for inclusion in this app, which includes the Big Temple and the Mamallapuram Shore Temple in Tamil Nadu. The mobile app will be expanded with more monuments in the future depending upon the response. 

All these 25 monuments were earlier identified by ASI under Adarsh Smarak Scheme for upgradation of tourist-related amenities. More than 100 Android users have already downloaded the app and the project is expected to gather steam in the near future.

The mobile app is also considered as a user-friendly initiative as it would enable the visitors to send their complaints within a few minutes. The app, which is tracked by the Project Monitoring Unit of Swachh Bharat Mission in Ministry of Tourism, will be soon made available in Apple and Microsoft platforms.