Taj Mahotsav gets sponsors, finally

The drought for sponsors for this year's Taj Mahotsava has finally come to an end only a week before its inaugural, as top Delhi-based property developers have come to the rescue of this Agra festival.

According to the Agra Divisional Commissioner Ashok Kumar, this year Agra was celebrating the 15th Taj Mahotsava and for the first time, the festival was being participated by 42 state emporiums apart from the handicraft artisans all around the country but it was also the first time that corporate sponsors had not been forthcoming to sponsor the events in this festival.

Talking to the mediapersons on Tuesday at the hotel Taj Khema, Kumar said the lack of sponsors could have seriously affected the festival's ability to attract tourists and locals through mega-shows that had become customary for the festival in the past decade.

He said to tide over the low number of sponsors for the festival, the Agra Development Corporation and Agra District Magistrate had been deputed to arrange for sponsorship of the events within a fortnight.

According to the commissioner, attracted by the campaigning of the Agra Development Authority, top Delhi based private property developers like Narsi Value Creations, Parshavnath Developers, Taneja Developers and Omaxe Group had agreed to sponsor the major events in the festival that included shows by the pop group Bombay Vikings, Ghulam Ali, Pankaj Udhas, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Sudesh Bhonsle, Hansraj Hans and Jasbir "Jassi" "" supposed be held over a time period of 10 days.

He said besides property developers, other sponsors included Channel V, Idea Mobile, Tata Telecom, UP State Road Transport Corporation, HPCL, and Green Gas Ltd.

These companies had finally agreed to participate in the festival following the district magistrate's efforts. The festival will now be held at a budget of Rs 65 lakh, most of which has come from sponsors.

According to Kumar, as against the earlier practice of holding two mega-events in the festival, one at the inaugural and one at the closure, this time there were 45 events that shall be distributed throughout the 10-day festival, beginning on February 18.