Mysuru: Notwithstanding natural disasters and downturn in the economic situation of the country or the world, tourist inflow to Mysuru seldom witnesses a marked dip. The crowds swell particularly around the Dasara festival, when people from the world over descend on the Heritage City to get their fill of the ‘Naada Habba’ celebrations. However, for a city that thrives on the tourism, the conspicuous absence of direction and destination boards at key locations raises questions aplenty. The protracted delay in putting up these boards in Mysuru, with its long list of tourist hotspots, has left stakeholders in the tourism sector a disappointed lot.The project to install direction boards , along the lines of those erected in Goa, was conceived in early 2017 but the authorities concerned continue to drag their feet on finalising the design of these boards, nearly 24 months after the proposal was mooted. Moreover, even a sum of Rs 1.5 crore has been allocated for implementing the project, despite which the civic officials continue to delay its execution.The enormous boards erected by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (Muda) serve little purpose since they are along the Outer Ring Road , far from most of the tourist attractions, which are clustered around the heart of the city. The other problem is that the few direction boards put up within city limits are being used for advertisements, furnishing little information to visitors.Hoteliers, tour operators and travel agencies are understandably miffed with the government and district administration for failing to implement a project, which is of great importance as far as the tourism industry is concerned, on time. “Those at the helm only pay lip service to issues affecting tourism. Direction boards are essential in Mysuru, but the authorities seem not to understand the plight of the visitors. I have visited many cities abroad, and because of these boards, I faced no problem reaching various places,” said a city-based hotelier.President of the Mysuru Travel Agents’ Association BS Prashanth pointed out that not everyone whipped out their smartphones, and navigated using Google Maps. “We have been demanding that sign boards be put up at prominent places for a long time. We are hoping that, with SR Mahesh as tourism minister, this project becomes a reality,” Prashanth said.Authorities of Mysuru Zoo had, a few years ago, proposed to install direction boards in a few places to help visitors navigate. However, this did not come to fruition. An official said that, while no such proposal was in front of them at the moment, he pointed to the boards the MUDA authority had put up along ORR directing tourists to the zoo.Deputy director of the tourism department, Mysuru, HP Janardhan attributed the delay in erecting of the sign boards owing to problems with their design. “We have rejected two designs already. We have now decided to go for boards, designs of which are in keeping with the heritage aspect of the city, at the behest of tourism minister Mahesh. We will soon erect the boards,” said Janardhan.

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