Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Tuesday unveiled the restored 18-feet-tall gold finial at Humayun’s Tomb after the original piece collapsed two years ago due to sandstorm. He said the finial was restored after two years of hard work.
What it took to get the finial back
It took about 2 lakh man-days of work, and was specially made of 300 kg of copper with 99.4 per cent purity and 3.5 kg of gold. The Humayun’s Tomb conservation was undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Ministry and the Archaeological Survey of India with the support of the Tata Trust.
Sharma said the restoration of the finial has also given confidence how a PPP model could be adopted if any damage happens to the monuments. Meanwhile, the minister was positive on increasing India’s share in global tourism to at least 1 per cent by 2020 from the current 0.68 per cent.
“We are addressing the three strength of tourism – cleaniness, safety and hospitality – in a big way. We hope to increase our share to atleast one per cent by 2020,” he said.