ASI to outsource some excavation projects to states and universities

It will monitor these projects, and step in if there are significant findings or complex tasks involved.

The ASI is the country’s only agency with the authority to approve excavations and all state departments and universities planning to undertake such projects have to seek its permission. In some cases, the ASI has handed partial grants.

But this will be the first time it will outsource such fully-funded projects, said sources.

Every year, several lists are drawn up and many excavation proposals are approved, but many remain on paper, said an official. A list of 31 sites was approved and made public by the ASI for 2022-23, including those along the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, the Gomti river in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, the Bibi ka Maqbara in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, Haryana’s Rakhigarhi, the Church of St Augustine in Old Goa and continued excavation in Delhi’s Purana Qila. Many of these digs, however, could not start. Almost a third of the Ministry of Culture’s total outlay in the Union Budget every financial year goes to the ASI, hovering around `1,000 crore. But excavations, among the core mandate of the agency, get assigned a miniscule part of it, and even some of that remains unutilised, said sources.

It will now focus a lot more on excavations as well, officials in the ministry said. The ASI functions in 37 regional circles. While the states will be involved majorly in site-specific projects, various universities to be enrolled include Pune’s Deccan College, Banaras Hindu University, among others.

In the coming years, there is a plan to explore several sites mentioned in ancient texts, for which a detailed site-by-site plan is being worked out, said sources, adding that maritime archaeology will also be revived for underwater explorations. As for maritime exploration, projects will be readied for excavations in Dwarka (Gujarat), several mythological sites in the Cauvery delta (Tamil Nadu), and sites along the coast in Maharashtra and Odisha, officials add. “Around Rs 5 crore will be spent towards excavation projects this year, which goes up to Rs 20 crore next year,” said an official, adding that at least Rs 100 crore will be earmarked for excavations over the next five years.

A number of excavations will also be undertaken in the southern part of India with focus on Deccan heritage, officials said.

The ASI has already started excavations at the Purana Qila mounds in Delhi, looking to find artefacts from the time of the Mahabharata. At the verge of closure of the previous excavations in 2017, evidence of the pre-Mauryan period (2,500 years ago) was found, but the effort this time is to reach the oldest possible layer of civilisational trace at the site.