Karnataka and Bengaluru’s iconic landmark Vidhana Soudha is all set to become a tourist destination by next month. The government has approved the Tourism Department’s plan to hold guided tours inside Vidhana Soudha for the public.

The officials of the Tourism Department said that the concept of touring governing centres is popular abroad as well as in Delhi where visitors can get a tour of Rastrapathi Bhavan and they want to create something similar in Bengaluru too.

History, archives

“Vidhana Soudha is a historical monument in Bengaluru. During the tour, we want to give visitorplanwant to conduct guided tours and we have prepared an internal circuit for this,” said a senior official from the department.

While many details such as ticket prices, gate for entry, etc., are being worked out, the Tourism Department plans to divide the time into many slots between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. “We want to have intimate tours and not want people to throng the venue all at once for security reasons and to provide a good, informational experience. Our plan is to take 30 people in at a time for a one-hour tour,” the senior official said.

Security features

The guides of each group will be submitting information about the visitors in their batches to security officials of Vidhana Soudha on the same day of the visit. The visitors should mandatorily have a government ID proof like Aadhaar Card or Voter’s ID to enter the premises.

On April 6, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah inaugurated the permanent lighting system at Vidhana Soudha which will be turned on during weekends and on special occasions.

‘Why the fee?’

However, many people have questioned why there should be an entry fee to get a tour of the governing centre of the State, which is not the case in other countries.