Experience the night outs in Amritsar

A major push towards developing the heritage gems of the city into a potential social capital has transformed Amritsar’s heritage sites into lively centres after the recent facelift. The makeover has added a spark to its otherwise quiet nights. Tribune correspondent Neha Saini and lensman Sunil Kumar capture the beauty and awe of a bustling night life in the holy city

Amritsar has always managed to charm visitors with its heritage quotient and its warm hospitality. The cultural capital of the state has always been among the cities that get maximum tourist footfall — domestic and international. Better known for its various tourist attractions instead of nightlife, its status as a tourism hub has only elevated. Thanks to the swish makeover that the entire stretch of the Heritage Street-Town Hall building have got apart from food joints inside the heritage monuments, including Gobindgarh Fort.

The sleepy lanes of Hall Bazaar, that used to be silent and dark after the day’s business was done, are now reverberating with life and have become quite a popular hangout for locals and visitors — courtesy the recent massive makeover that includes a newly set up food street, a fine-dining restaurant and a beautiful fountain with its massive chandeliers.

Once the heritage building of the Town Hall, that houses the Partition Museum and a library, closes at 6pm, the entire premises would wear a deserted look. Not now, as the aesthetically lit-up street-food stalls and coffee shops, with their outward European type cafes, offer true Ambarsari experience.

The Town Hall-Heritage Street stretch now attracts maximum footfall — not just of tourists, but local people alike from 7 pm till midnight. Considering that whatever development of infrastructure tourism has been done in the city, it has impacted the length of stay of visitors. The latest addition of a food court inside the Town Hall building has only added to the positive response.

“It’s highly appreciable how the authorities concerned have made a wise use of heritage with the visually appealing changes done at the Town Hall. Bringing these heritage buildings to mainstream, the entire exercise has managed to attract more footfall at night as now people have a place where they can walk around, get enriching experience rather than rushing through,” said Prof Balwinder Singh, a conservation expert and former faculty at School of Planning and Architecture at the Guru Nanak Dev University.

With the recent developments, the food street and stroll concept has managed to attract more locals than tourists. The quaint, appealing, tangible and intangible aspects of heritage inside the walled city now has an added awe-factor as the walk-throughs are well thought-out projects.

While the changes have been enamouring for tourists, youngsters in the city have also embraced the possibility of having a go-to place at night. It’s a most favourite frequented hangout place for them now at night as there is no traffic.

Experience royalty at Gobindgarh Fort

Another heritage-tourism experience can be had at the Qila Gobindgarh that now offers a fine-dining experience like royalty. Kesariya Darbar, a fine-dining traditional restaurant inside the fort premises, has now revived night time footfall. With a light and sound show, live 5D theatre show and a fine-dine experience, the night activity inside the fort, that used to shut its doors for tourists after 6pm, offers an experience like none other.

First and last Indian restaurant near border

A similar concept of using heritage to develop social culture has been the Shahi Qila, a concept-based fine-dining centre, that has come up along the Attari-Wagah border road. If being a few kilometres away from the key tourist destination was not enough, it also has India’s tallest Tricolour inside its premises. The place has a footfall of about 300-400 persons every day, and it increases as the tourist traffic increases. Offering a view of the border over a cup of tea, along with an array of traditional Punjabi as well as global cuisine, Shahi Qila capitalises on the fact that it’s the first and the last Indian restaurant near the border.