By: Ahmad Shabir
Anantnag: Authorities have finally started the process to identify the land for the construction of Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) at the famous tourist destination, Pahalgam in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
The development took place days after this news paper reported the failure of authorities to construct the TRC at the tourist spot after the old one was destroyed in a blaze seven years ago.
In the report titled ‘Seven years on, PDA fails to allow construction of TRC at Pahalgam’, this news paper had reported that the absence of modern TRC for last several years is forcing the tourist authorities to operate from more than a km down Pahalgam market.
The tourist officials quoted in the report had admitted that the tourists were facing inconvenience in the absence of TRC.
Sources said that Lieutenant Governor led administration following the report carried by Precious Kashmir, directed the tourism officials to identify the land for the construction of the TRC at famous tourist destination.
Director Tourism, an official said, has now initiated the process for the identification of the land for TRC.
Since the PDA is reluctant to grant permission for reconstruction of the facility at the old spot citing that a multi-storey building will deface the beauty of the place, tourism department, an official said, has now submitted a proposal for construction of the facility at Nunwan where TRC is running from a small hut for last several years.
“Tourism department has around 12 to 13 Kanals of land near Nunwan and a proposal for construction of TRC at the spot has been submitted. It is an ideal place for construction of the facility and PDA too has no objection to it. Top authorities seem to have taken the issue of non-availability of TRC very seriously now and directions for the construction of the same have been issued. I think Pahalgam will soon have TRC on modern lines,” a tourist official told Precious Kashmir.
Chief Executive Officer, PDA, Mushtaq Simnani, said that there is proposal for construction of TRC at Nunwan but that has to be passed by building operations controlling authority (BOCA).