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| CM sets agenda for promotion of eco-tourism | | Air taxi service between Katra, Bhadarwah mooted | |
Srinagar, July 31
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has asked tourism and forest departments to jointly plan and implement projects for promotion of eco-tourism in the State even as he said air taxi service from Katra to Bhadarwah would be explored to attract Vaishnodevi shrine pilgrims. He asked senior officers of the two departments to constitute a committee for appraisal and implementation of tourism development projects where forest land was involved.
The Chief Minister passed this instruction during a meeting to review work on the projects taken up by Bhadarwah Development Authority here today.
Minister for Tourism, Muhammad Dilawar Mir, Chief Secretary, C. Phunsog, Financial Commissioner, Home, B. R. Kundal, Financial Commissioner, Planning & Development, S. S. Kapur, Director Geeneral Prisions, Rajinder Tikoo, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Anil Goswami, Secretary, Tourism Naeem Akhtar, Chief Executive Officer, Bhadarwah Development Authority, Talat Ahmad were present.
The Chief Minister emphasised the need to prioritise schemes for timely completion in order to raise infrastructure in the newly created development authorities in the three regions of the state. He said a joint meeting of all the 22 development authorities would be convened soon to decide on parameters for development projects to be uniformally implemented.
About the development of Jai, a breathtakingly beautiful place, the Chief Minister said that it was becoming increasingly a popular tourist destination and received 1.5 lakh internal tourists a year. He said recently 250 students of a private school of Srinagar had camped at Jai for several days. Another batch of 800 students from the school would arrive there next year. He asked the tourism authorities to encourage local people develop guest house facilities from the existing houses on a reasonable expenditure so that tourist accommodation problem was addressed. The government, he said, could provide incentives for redoing private houses. He said a committee would be constituted to examine suitability of the houses to be redone as tourist accommodation. The infrastructure development projects at Jai include cafeteria and landscaping, joggers’ track and dome huts.
Azad asked for exploring public-private partnership for developing infrastructure at Seoj Dhar where dome huts and camping sites could be set up. He said there was tremendous scope for diverting Vaishnodevi Shrine pilgrims to Bhadarwah valley for which adequate infrastructure would have to be put in place. He said helicopter service between Katra and Bhadarwah would be explored for promotion of tourism in the area.
Taking stock of works taken up by Bhadarwah Development Authority to develop tourism infrastructure at the Little Kashmir, Azad set the deadline for completion of Tourist Reception Centre, Bhadarwah, tourist huts at Gatha and view points at Khellani by April next. Under the tourist destination development scheme, Gatha would be developed as a lake view resort at the cost of Rs. 225 lakhs. The development schemes include water body, hutments, park and cafeteria. The first phase of the 2-phase project would be completed by April 2008. The second phase includes construction of Rose Garden and Gazebo Garden.
The Chief Minister showed interest in the project for heritage tourism at Bhadarwah under which the famous Bhadarwah Fort would be beautified. The jail set up in the fort in 1920 would now be shifted to develop the monument as a heritage site.
The Chief Executive Officer, BDA said that projects worth Rs. 18.12 crores had been forwarded to the central government for funding. These include construction of Park Resort at Khellani, Amusement Park at Chabra, Tourist Complex and Interpretation Centre and Kursari Hill Resort.
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