Entry fee to Taj Mahal, other monuments hiked from today

01 April, Agra

Entry fee to the Taj Mahal and other ASI protected monuments across the country has been hiked from Friday.

In September 2015, the Tourism ministry had announced a 200 per cent hike in entry fees across India from November 1, but then stalled the hike till April after several tourism bodies lodged their protest.

Yesterday, the central government has issued a final notification on the entrance fee hike at country’s monuments, doubling it for visitors from abroad at the Taj Mahal from Rs 250 to Rs 500. With another Rs 500 as toll tax, the total money they now need to shell out is a prohibitive Rs 1,000.

Domestic tourists will now have to pay Rs 30 (after adding toll tax collected by Agra Development Authority it will be Rs 40) instead of Rs 10 to visit ‘A’ category monuments, which include the Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar.

For category ‘B’ monuments, the rates have been increased from Rs 5 to Rs 15 for Indians and from Rs 100 to Rs 200 for foreigners.Interestingly, ASI has introduced a new class for foreigners visiting ‘A’ and ‘B’ category monuments and for this, they will have to pay Rs 750 and Rs 300 respectively.

For this, they will be provided with additional facilities specified by the director-general. Citizens of Saarc and Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation countries will be charged domestic rates.

ASI took the decision to hike ticket prices by 200 per cent in all categories after a gap of 12 years. It had issued a preliminary notification to raise the ticket prices of its monuments on September 15, 2015 and had set a 45-day window to accept objections or suggestions from the public.