Shiv Khori is one of the most popular and holy shrines in the State where in a 150 yards deep cave the lingam representing Lord Shiva is formed and watered by the vapours. Devotees come from distant places to make obeisance at the cave and seek the blessing of the Lord. The Shrine Board of Shiv Khori contemplated building a chopper landing strip close at a distance of about 500 feet from the cave so that aged persons who can afford helicopter service would be facilitated in their pilgrimage. This has been the plan of the Board and also of the administration and in this regard preliminaries were sorted out by the concerned. Even some chopper service companies were also approached who consented to run the service but only after the landing strip was available.
By strange quirk of fate, while all arrangements were being finalized, everything got stuck up at the final stage. The owners of the land refused to give the land that was identified for converting into landing strip for the choppers. This has put entire project into disarray. It is amusing that the Board did not first make sure that identified land was available and only then undertook to address other components of the scheme. We have to touch on the point with emphasis that the Tourism Department of the State should have been equally interested in making the plan a success. After all pilgrimage tourism in our State is gaining in popularity. The number of pilgrims to the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi has exceeded one crore. If necessary facilities are available to the tourists, the number of pilgrims to Shiv Khori in district Reasi would also increase manifold. We are aware that the State Government gives great media hype to the tourist potential of the State, which means that the Government is interested in providing all faculties and pre-requisites for making tourism success in the State. In that context, we would strongly wish the Government and the Shrine Board coordinate their efforts of obtaining suitable land where the strip for safe landing of choppers would become possible and feasible.
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