Tourism projects

Jammu tourism figured in the Assembly when the Minister for Tourism was replying on his Department’s performance.  Progress on three projects, directly or indirectly connected with tourism, was brought under focus. These are the artificial lake in Tawi riverbed, Mubarak Mandi complex and Surinsar lake development. The artificial lake that is proposed to come up in the riverbed of Tawi near Balicharana was entrusted to the care of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Department during the year 2010-11 with an estimated cost of Rs 70 crore. Rs. 51.10 crores have been released for the project so far out of which a sum of Rs. 48.16 crore is shown as expended till date. At the same time, a portion of work has already been completed. But the work is not carried out now with the zest shown in the beginning for the simple reason that the balance of 19 crores rupees has been withheld for unknown reasons. This is bound to dampen the spirit of lovers of tourism of adventure. Making of the lake was decided after a well thought out plan had been approved by the concerned departments. We shall not go into the question of quantum of tourist activities conduced in Jammu region so as to make a comparison with Kashmir tourism. We just want to appreciate the decision of the Government to promote tourism in Jammu region to the satisfaction of the people of the region.
The idea of providing the citizens of Jammu city a source and means of recreation, the lake on the bed of Tawi was proposed. The proposal was thoroughly debated at various levels that involved several departments and Tourism Department was in a big hurry to see to it that the lake was completed as early as possible. It has to be reminded that when the proposal of constructing an artificial lake was mooted, Pakistan raised some objections. The two countries, India and Pakistan, have signed a bilateral agreement on water sharing system regarding the rivers that flow across the territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. After referring to the World Bank, the decision of the Indian side to build an artificial lake on the bed of Tawi, Pakistan made us stop construction work on the proposed project till finally the World Bank announced its verdict saying that construction of artificial lake by India over the bed of Tawi posed no threat to the supply of specific quantity of water from the rivers to Pakistan. On the basis of this finding of the World Bank, Union and State Governments worked in tandem resolved the deadlock and the parties went their homes satisfied.
Jammu people have been nursing the ambition of having a place where the youth as well as the children can enjoy themselves by initiating aquatics and other water games. It could also have some salutary effect on arid surroundings of Jammu city. But the exercise of bringing it to completion by next year may not happen owing to Government’s inability to release the balance amount for the project. Why should have this bottleneck emerged at this point of time is not understandable.
The case of renovating and reconstructing the Mubarak Mandi complex has also been hanging fire. This project is entrusted to the Archaeological Survey of India but nobody is able to tell when the project would be completed. We feel that there are indications that this could be a semi-permanent project because the snail’s pace is a long process and nobody can have even the faintest idea of when the complex would finally be renovated and handed over back to the Tourism Department
Actually 56 projects have been sanctioned for Jammu province under Central funding amounting Rs 235.42 crore. Twenty three projects have been completed and the remaining 33 are at various stages of completion. We would allow the administration the argument that for various reasons some of the projects could not be completed within the prescribed time. Delaying the projects involves extra expenditures and extra money is not easily coming forth. Obviously it means that tourism projects have to be worked out in piecemeal method. Perhaps there is no escape from escalation of cost expenditure. Anyway, while appreciating the effort of the Government to bring Jammu on the tourist map of India, we beseech the State Government to expedite completion of incomplete tourism projects in Jammu region.

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