The annual 30-day Indian Dance Festival organised by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department began at Mamallapuram near Chennai on Thursday.
Around 90 performances, including those of Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and Kathak and folk arts such as Oyilattam, Karagattam, Kavadi and Thappaattam will be held as part of the festival.
Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises T.M. Anbarasan, who inaugurated the festival, urged the District Collector to draw up a traffic management plan for the town of Mamallapuram.
“The number of visitors, both domestic and foreigners, is going up by the year. During some weekends, the traffic is unbearable. The government is taking every step to make the visit and stay of tourists to this town comfortable,” he said.
In 2017, 1.50 crore tourists visited the town and in 2018 the number went up to 1.82 crore. In 2020, it came down to 36.8 lakh due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Anbarasan said.
Minister for Tourism M. Mathiventhan said 1.90 lakh guests had attended the festival in 2019-2020. This year, the festival would go on till January 23, 2022. The programmes would be held in the evenings by following all COVID-19 protocols.
Sholinganallur MLA Aravind Ramesh, Chengalpattu MLA M. Varalakshmi, Thiruporur MLA S.S. Balaji, Tourism Secretary B. Chandra Mohan, Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation MD Sandeep Nanduri, and Chengalpattu Collector Rahul Nadh participated.
