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| Major tourist destination of Jammu given least attention | | Road leading from NH to holy town Katra in shambles, authorities in slumber | |  EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 14: With the annual Navratri festival going on in full swing, thousands of pilgrims have started coming to Katra but the road leading to the holy town from National Highway is in shambles, exposing the seriousness of authorities towards the major tourist destination of Jammu region.
During Navratri festival the number of pilgrims visiting the Mata Vaishno Devi Cave shrine swelled manifolds but all the tourists have to cover a road length from Domail to holy town Katra. The road is in shambles with potholes emerging at various portions of the road while at several spots the blacktopping has been badly damaged. The roads links are an important component of tourism promotion but despite having highest tourism potential in Jammu region, the concerned authorities have failed to show seriousness towards this important stretch of the road, a tourist said, adding that the road was not properly metalled and even patchwork has not been done by the department.
“On one hand the government has been claiming to make all round development in Jammu and Kashmir but in Jammu region, the authorities have failed to provide basic road infrastructure to the Mata Vaishno Devi cave shrine which is totally unfortunate”, a resident of Katra town Vijay Singh said.
An official said that pilgrimage tourism to Mata Vaishno Devi cave shrine provides a large amount of revenue to the Shrine Board as well as to many other people associated with providing facilities to the tourists but it was a serious matter that why the road was not properly maintained. “During Navratri festival, the influx of tourists increase manifolds and if the authorities have some plans to completely metalled the road, then at-least patch-work should be done by the in view of Navratris”, the official said, adding that it gave a wrong impression before the tourists that the Union Territory administration was not able to provide basic road facility to the tourists.
Executive Engineer of District Reasi Janak Raj said that the road stretch from Domail to Katra town falls under another Executive Engineer of Katra town. However, he added that the black-topping work has been going on the road stretch and they have started the work from Nau-Devi area and would soon reach there. On being asked why during Navratri festival, patch work was not done by the department he said that on some portions patch work was done but asked to speak with the other Executive Engineer.
Executive engineer Arvind Gupta said that the construction work of road has been going on. Initially the civil works have been undertaken while at the same time macdamization work is undertaken from Nau devi side and very soon it will be completed. He further said that the department had undertaken some patch work around a month back and will undertake remaining works soon. |
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