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New Delhi: The government will spend Rs1.4 million (Dh127,272) in giving the Taj Mahal a mudpack treatment to clean up its yellowing marble surfaces in the first phase, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
She said the clay pack method, a scientific way of cleaning marble surfaces, would safely and effectively remove superficial accretions. The treatment would be carried out in two phases, the minister said.
"In the first phase, work on the arches, including the marble screens and platform terrace walls of the monument facing river Yamuna, has already been initiated and expected to be completed by second week of June 2008 at an estimated cost of Rs1.4 million," she told the House.
The minarets of the 17th century monument in Agra would be taken up in the next phase, Soni said.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has set up an air pollution laboratory near the Taj Mahal that regularly monitors the air quality in the surrounding area since 1982.
The average level of suspended particulate matter is five times higher than the permissible limit prescribed for monuments.
This causes the yellowing of the marble surfaces, particularly in rain-sheltered areas such as marble cladding in the arches of the main mausoleum and market brackets, she explained.
The minister said the treatment has been adopted since 1983-84 and is an internationally recognised method. It has been successfully used in Britain and Italy, she said. The surface is covered with a 2mm-thick layer of Fuller's earth and when it dries it is removed from the surface with soft nylon brushes and washed with distilled water to remove impurities sticking to the surface.
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