Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, July 23: Three double-bed huts of Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) in Drung resort of north Kashmir’s Tangmarg area of Baramulla district are in dilapidated condition since three years and the concerned caretakers are struggling to renovate and preserve them.
The three huts were constructed for the purpose of visitors’ night stay at Drung, which lies in the foothills of Gulmarg meadows, but due to multiple factors these huts have not served their purpose. Sources said that none of the visitors prefer to stay at Drung during night hours as it is an isolated place full of woods and without any development and tourism infrastructure.
The rooms and bathrooms of these huts have been damaged by unidentified miscreants. Sources said that the caretaker of these huts, who was posted by GDA, has also abandoned them which gave miscreants a free hand to vandalize them from time-to-time. In fact, a full-fledged room was allotted to the caretaker by the GDA to look after these huts but to no avail as he had not performed his duties.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GDA, Shafqat Iqbal when contacted by Excelsior admitted that the huts are in dilapidated condition since three years. He said that the GDA issued multiple notices for outsourcing these huts but there was no response from anyone. “Initially we issued a notice wherein we fixed the outsourcing cost at Rs. 3 lakh per year but there was no response,” he added.
“Then again, we issued another notice by reducing the cost to Rs. 2 lakh per year.. But there was no response. We again issued notice and put the cost at Rs. 1.5 lakh but there was no response again. Then we issued fourth notice and fixed Rs. 75,000 a year but ironically there was no response again and after which we didn’t issue any notice because we cannot reduce the cost further,” he further said.
He said after zero response for outsourcing, the GDA has decided to renovate these huts itself and to woo visitors, a tourist facilitation centre is being constructed at Drung. “We have already started the survey for this purpose. We are also building other tourism infrastructure so that this place doesn’t remain in isolation and local as well as non-local visitors prefer visiting the Drung which has immense natural beauty,” Iqbal added.
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