On Wednesday afternoon, Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai will click on www. new7wonder.com to vote in favour of the Taj Mahal as part of a campaign for redrawing the millennium old Seven Wonders Of The World List.

A Swiss NGO launched a campaign four years ago at the turn of the century to declare new Seven Wonders Of The World. Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber has been travelling around the world in his seaplane and hot air balloon to mobilise public support for his mission, encouraging people to vote for their national treasures.

Weber's mission statement is "Our heritage is our future".

On Wednesday, he will take off in the hot air balloon from the Taj Nature Walk, 500 metres from the monument.

In Agra, officials of the NGO have been camping for the past few days to prepare for Wednesday's big event when Aishwarya will launch the campaign for including the Taj Mahal in the new wonders list.

District magistrate Nitishwar Kumar held a press conference with tourism department officials and NGO representatives to encourage people to vote online or through SMS to cast their votes in favour of the Taj.

The Taj is gradually picking up votes and its chief rival for the moment is the Eiffel Tower of Paris, said a representative of the NGO.

Madurai's Meenakshi temple once in the running but has now been relegated to the background.

D.K. Burman, joint director of Uttar Pradesh tourism, hopes the Taj Mahal will win hands down.

"The exercise will help repositioning the Taj brand strongly in the global market," Burman added.

--Indo-Asian News Service