Pondicherry, Nov 17: A site at Arikamedu, the Indo-Roman trading centre of first century ad, has been handed over to the Archaelogical Survey of India for excavation, education minister K Lakshminarayanan said today. The 35 acre site had been acquired at a cost of Rs 68 lakh from funds made available by the centre, he said adding excavation work would commence soon.

Arikamedu, where excavation had been done few years ago, was an important commercial and trading centre. The government owned industrial development corporation here would extend loan facilities to those coming forward for development of tourism in the union territory, Lakshminarayanan said.

A group of hotels and Scottish business centre had expressed their desire to promote tourism, he said. Bureau Report