TDAs need Master Plans

Should encroachments and illegal constructions be allowed to rob the tourist destinations in Jammu of their lustre and gleam and yet groan about the unsatisfactory footfall of the tourists, is an important issue to be addressed by the concerned authorities of Tourism Department. It cannot, in all probabilities, be presumed that the fact of such a state of affairs is not in their knowledge. Does the department have a comprehensive Master Plan to ensure planned and integrated development of the areas under the jurisdiction of Tourism Development Authorities.
We have a total of 25 Tourism Development Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir and the sole motive of creation of these Authorities from time to time was to take serious care of all round development of the tourist destinations by way of formulating innovative and dividend oriented plans and policies as the very Act under which they were set up envisaged the same. Taking periodic reviews and making appraisals of the existing infrastructure with intent to propose, suggest, formulate and arrange executions of schemes and plans for their improvement and even modernisation, are some of their prime duties. This all had to be done by preparing master plans taking all aspects into considerations but with prime objective to ensure increase in tourist turnout. All care, however, was to be taken with regard to having due considerations for the local environment and ecology.
On the contrary, what is found is that encroachments and illegal constructions are noticed at regular intervals as a fallout of there being no vision, no policy and absolutely no planning let alone a road map to tackle with the problem. Whenever some arrangements are made, precisely on ad-hoc basis to deal with the existing illegal structures to pave way for some developmental works, the same becomes impossible and most of the plan executions get adversely affected due to protracted legal and other matters which the violators take refuge under. On a comparative analysis, we find that some Tourism Development Authorities in Kashmir valley do have some proper Master Plan which, in one or the other, is executed too but we do not appear to be coming across such a scenario in Jammu region or in other words, there is absence of a mandatory vision document. The result is the obvious neglect of their respective areas making the same vulnerable to illegal constructions and encroachments.
A proper system envisages that once a draft plan is prepared to address such issues, the same should be monitored and a proper follow up adopted to ensure its implementation but when we employ such basic tenets of planning and execution thereof for example in respect of some prominent tourist destinations like in Patnitop we have our fingers crossed. It may be recalled that a Master Plan was prepared as back as in September 2011 following inking of an agreement between Patnitop Development Authority and the Centre For Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT), Hyderabad. It is an irony to find that no serious attention was paid in seeing its implementation and as on date, its fate is not only hanging in balance but has become a victim of red tape and official apathy. Minor problems, queries and other related issues particularly in respect of revenue etc remained mired in delays and poor responses. The requirement of a revised fresh Master Plan remaining as they are even on date, are among other things providing room for illegal and unauthorised structures coming up intermittently posing serious problems in many ways to this tourist destination.
The position in respect of other destinations is the same as almost all noted tourist destinations are apparent victims of an absence of proper Master Plans suited to the needs and requirements of individual destinations, be it Bhaderwah, Surinsar-Mansar, Bani- Basohli or any other destination. What is required to be done is to evaluate the tremendous potential of these tourist places to generate revenue and boost the economic prospects of the areas and cumulative economic growth as tourism as a promising industry has the inherent nature to grow but commensurate with how destinations of tourism were developed and made tourism friendly. We need to be serious at Government level which automatically shall get percolated down at the desired focussed points in respect of the designated tourist destinations.

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