Bhubaneswar: The Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha's Puri district, a major tourist attraction, was on Tuesday re-opened for visitors after remaining closed for more than five months, an official said.
Though other ASI protected monuments in the state like Raja Rani temple, Udaygiri, Khandagiri, Lalitgiri Buddhist monuments were opened earlier, the Konark temple received visitors only on September 1, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Superintending Officer Arun Kumar Mallick told PTI.
He said visitors are allowed entry into the monument following all the norms set both by the Centre and the state government. Wearing of masks and social distancing has been made mandatory for the visitors of the heritage site, he said, adding that tourists will also undergo thermal screening before their entry.
Mallick said visitors can buy tickets by scanning QR code installed outside the temple and make payment online. A total of 2,500 visitors will now be allowed entry every day in two phases.
While 1,500 visitors will be allowed to visit the site between 6 am and 1 pm, another 1,000 persons can enter the premises in the afternoon hours.
He said though other ASI sites were opened earlier, the Sun Temple at Konark remained closed till August 31 due to restrictions imposed by the Puri district administration.
"We have been allowed only to open only non-living temples in the state now," Mallick said, adding that Shree Jagannath Temple continues to remain closed since March 15 as a precautionary measure to check the spread of the infection.
Odisha reports 3,025 new COVID-19 cases
Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,06,561 on Tuesday as 3,025 more people tested positive for the infection, while 11 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 503, a health official said. As many as 1,844 fresh infections were detected in quarantine centres, while 1,181 people tested positive for COVID-19 during contact tracing, he said.
Khurda district, under which Bhubaneswar falls, reported the highest number of new cases at 666, followed by Cuttack (312), Mayurbhanj (215) and Ganjam (207), the official said, adding 24 other districts reported less than 200 new cases each.
Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Puri districts reported two fresh fatalities each, while one patient each died in Cuttack, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts, he said.
Ganjam district accounted for 191 of the 503 COVID-19 deaths in the state, followed by 67 in Khurda, the official said, adding 53 coronavirus patients have died due to other ailments so far.
Odisha now has 28,719 active COVID-19 cases, while 77,286 people have recovered from the disease so far, he said. The state has so far tested 18,39,854 samples for COVID-19, including 50,421 on Monday.
