Taj Mahal and Agra Fort to reopen from Sept 21

"TajMahal and Agra Fort to welcome tourists from 21st Sept’20. Please visits http://asiagracircle.in for more information," Singh's tweet read.

The announcement comes at a time when India is adding over 90,000 cases of coronavirus infection daily and has surpassed Brazil to become the second-worst affected nation globally.

The heritage city also registered 3,459 cases so far with 83 fresh infections on Monday.

The Centre will issue a guideline to be adhered by the tourists to gain entry to the mausoleum and the fort including strict norms of social distancing and sanitisation.

Vasant Kumar Swarnkar, superintending archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India (Agra circle), in a statement to the media said: "Masks are mandatory to enter the monuments and all tickets must be purchased online. Ticket counters will not be open."

According to him, 5,000 tourists will be allowed daily in the Taj Mahal while only 2,500 tourists will be allowed every day at the Agra Fort.

The Taj Mahal has around 7 million visitors every year with a large number of foreign tourists.

The Agra Fort has nearly 3 million visitors a year.

Both these monuments add up heavily to the tourism revenue generated by the Uttar Pradesh government.

They have been closed since March 17 owing to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh is the fifth most-affected state in the country with over 2.65 lakh infections. Agra had recorded 110 deaths so far.