Bhubaneswar: Trapped in a Time Warp

Once hailed as the Temple City, Bhubaneswar today struggles to captivate tourists with outdated offerings and underutilized heritage, losing ground to emerging destinations

Satya Misra

A hundred years back, a tourist to Bhubaneswar would have visited Lingaraj temple, Khandagiri and Udayagiri caves, Mukteswar Temple, Rajarani temple, and Kedar Gouri, which would have satiated his appetite for religion as well as architecture. Today, in 2025, a visitor arriving to tour the city would visit the same spots with little or no additions. In more than a century, the city has not made any significant additions to this list.

It’s not that nothing has been done. Nandan Kanan made a hesitant entry to the list in 1960 and gradually grew into a popular tourist destination, but serious tourists and elders, unaccompanied by kids, give it a miss. The excavated remains of the ancient city of Sisupalgarh could have been a big draw for visitors. But sadly, this ancient capital city is now gasping for breath amidst concrete structures and encroachments.

The peace pagoda at Dhauli is in the list, but yet to make the grade as a ‘must-visit’ spot. Ekamra Kanan and Smrutivan are fascinating spots, but potential remains underutilised. Jayadev Vatika, a sprawling urban forest, is struggling to transcend its identity as a winter picnic spot.  Ekamra Haat started well as an urban shopping centre for ethnic goods. The tiny amphitheatre at its centre offered music and dance performances in the evenings.

But not anymore. A ghost of its former self, now it gives a dull and desolate look with few shops and fewer buyers. Reasons could be many, including administrative apathy and poor maintenance, but let’s face it: the main reason is poor patronage. Locals cannot keep it going unless tourists include the place in their itinerary.

Locals would rather rush to the annual Khandagiri fair with its rustic charm than to the upscale Ekamra Haat. The planetarium is resurrected from its Covid slumber, but the Science Museum wears a pathetic look. Nicco Park held promise as a tourist attraction, but the dream has now become a nightmare of sorts. None of them feature in the city’s tourist circuit.

Bhubaneswar has at least five museums, none of which gets tourists’ footfall. They are the State Museum, Science Museum, Museum of Natural History, Museum of Tribal Arts, and   Kalabhoomi. All are well-located and easily accessible. Kalabhoomi is a decent place to spend a day watching the rich tapestry of Odia crafts, but even many locals are unaware of its existence, let alone tourists. This writer has visited Tribal Museums at Port Blair, Ooty, and Bhubaneswar. The one at Bhubaneswar scores high in terms of volume, variety, and inclusiveness, but sadly lacks audience interest.

Many middle-class residents of Bhubaneswar, enjoying leave travel facilities offered by their employers, have visited the Salar Jung Museum at Hyderabad, but haven’t stepped into the local state Museum. It is doubtful whether they ever will. Understandably, two pricey but stylish amusement parks, privately run on purely commercial lines (Wonderla and Ocean World), are drawing more visitors than all other attractions put together, except the mighty Lingaraj Temple.

The sobriquet ‘Temple City of India’, once donned proudly by the city, now looks like a worn-out cap. The skyline, once dotted by ancient spires, is now a collage of high-rise buildings. Its identity as a spiritually magnetic destination is lost. For the average tourist, its offerings have become thin and underwhelming.

Beyond the few well-known temples, scores of smaller shrines lie in a state of neglect, overrun by vegetation or lost in urban clutter, with neither conservation effort nor tourist interest coming to their aid. Holiday makers coming to Bhubaneswar have a blurred identity. Are they tourists or pilgrims? The line is often indistinct. Many who come for religious purposes may also take a quick look at local attractions, but their primary focus is religion.

With the list of key attractions remaining largely stagnant, Bhubaneswar is leaning too heavily on its past without meaningfully adding to the visitor experience. It still attracts tourists, yes- but not because it is a stand-alone destination of excitement, activity, or spiritualism, but because it acts as a transit point, a gateway to the iconic Konark, Puri, Chilka lake, and more. Many lesser-known attractions in the state’s hinterland, the beaches, lakes, forests, mountain peaks, excavated ruins, and rich biodiversity of the state offer a better travel experience than Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar is the gateway to all those places as well; so, a visit to any spot in Odisha essentially starts with a visit to Bhubaneswar.

Secondly, Bhubaneswar is a great centre for conventions, corporate symposia, literary festivals, fairs, exhibitions, and sports events, some of which even enlist foreigners as delegates. Visitors attending these events become accidental tourists of Bhubaneswar. The city has also emerged as an educational hub, generating casual tourists comprising students and their parents. Thus, the city gets more incidental tourists than pure tourists.

This phenomenon keeps the tourism machine running and the hospitality industry booming, leaving the stakeholders complacent.  But it is wrong to treat Odisha tourism as Bhubaneswar tourism. Tour industry of Bhubaneswar is riding piggyback on conventions, weddings, and hinterland tours – forces unrelated to city tour.  So understandably, the city’s hospitality and tourism services are geared towards short stays, limited itineraries, and temple visits.   Little wonder there is hardly any city sightseeing tour worth the name.

The city has much to offer in terms of history, art, and even nature, but these offerings need to be packaged, publicised, and positioned in a way that appeals to the 21st-century tourists. The city of Visakhapatnam in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh is an example of how a city can continuously upgrade its tourist experience without leaning on any ancient structure.

(The Author is a short story writer. The views expressed are personal.)