Abstract

Promotion of tourism requires sufficient infrastructure facilities to cater to the needs of the tourists but it should not adversely affect the heritage environment. This necessitates framing a set of guidelines that are location specific for visitor infrastructure development. In the present study, case study of Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swami temple popularly known as Simhachalam Temple constructed in 1098 AD by Chola King Kulothunga in Chalukyan and Orissa style of architecture at Visakhapatnam, India, has been discussed to demonstrate the significance of such guidelines. Recently modern tourism infrastructure facilities at the Simhachalam Temple site were developed to meet the demand of the growing number of visitors and pilgrims by demolishing historic structures. The visitor infrastructure development was initiated with new amenities like waiting halls, toilets, lockers and que complex. However, in the absence of integral planning for the development of tourism infrastructure, certain redevelopment and renovations are observed as dominating the heritage structures and degrading the visual access and in some cases even harmful to the heritage structures in the site and the environment. This paper is a critical review of impact of existing visitor infrastructure facilities on the heritage site, due to construction/ modification taken up as per Master Plan of 2009 by the Ministry of Endowments of Andhra Pradesh State Government, as a part of destination infrastructure development at the religious heritage site. The research focus on this heritage site is in relevance with visitor infrastructure to develop guidelines for future developments in such heritage and archaeological sites so as to minimise the adverse effects on the site.