Four years ago the Government announced it would set up a passenger ropeway for Shivkhori cave shrine in Reasi. The purpose of the ropeway was to make it an attraction for the tourist and thereby give fillip tourist industry in the hilly district of Reasi. Ever since the project was announced the Coalition Government in the state came out with many statements that the work on the project would begin without delay. But the reality is that this project is also going to meet the fate of most of the projects that have been declared with much fanfare by the Coalition Government. We understand that Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has sought Environment Impact Assessment-Environment Management Plan report as well as information on 20 key points from the Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation before giving necessary clearances to the project. Clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment is mandatory. Proper planning demanded that the JKCCC should have obtained clearance from the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment before the project was announced. Nobody can say how much time the Ministry concerned will take to issue clearance certificate. It brings to our mind the story of Patnitop Ropeway which had been hanging fire for nearly two decades and still is nowhere in sight. Popular Government is considered a boon but it is also a curse at times. By the standards of Patnitop Ropeway Shivkhori ropeway will take at least a decade more to see the light of the day. That is only a conservative estimate.
Let us say candidly that the State Government and the concerned sections of bureaucracy are soft paddling on expansion and promotion of tourism in Jammu region. There is lot of shedding crocodile’s tears, and producing one or the other reason why no progress is visible in Jammu tourism. The leisurely and lackluster manner in which Jammu tourism is treated makes us believe that Jammu tourism may never be on the tourist map ol India. Jammu tourism should not make authorities complacent and claims that lakhs of tourists are coming to Jammu. The fact of the matter is that excellent arrangements of providing facilities to pilgrim tourists from all over the country has by Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board is to take the credit. We wish the Tourism Department was alive to its duties and responsibilities and invested initiative in popularizing tourism in Jammu and Ladakh regions besides the Valley. That would change the quality of life in our state.
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