Jammu, Nov 22: Urging for creating innovative facilities of Global standard at Surinsar and Mansar lakes, the Minister for Tourism and Culture,   Nawang Rigzin Jora has asked the concerned authorities to formulate comprehensive plans for the purpose so that these spots could captivate more and more tourists for visiting there, an official statement said.
 Jora while making a thorough visit of Surinsar today said that the pristine glory of these renowned tourist destinations not only needs to be preserved but showcased both domestically and internationally.
 He said that concrete steps will have to be taken for ensuring healthy and harmonious scenic grandeur and beauty of these areas so that these remain long lasting centres of attraction for visitors.
 The Minister said this while on a visit to Surinsar, a health resort about 35 kilometres from here. He went around the Surinsar lake and juxtaposed areas and took stock of various developmental initiatives underway there.
 The Minister was accompanied by MLA Nagrota   Jugal Kishore and senior officers of Tourism Department and Mansar-Surinsar Development Authority.
 The Minister called for promoting ecotourism in the State and asked the authorities to make it the theme of State’s sightseeing. He sought cooperation from the people to project J&K as an eco friendly tourist destination and urged active involvement of expert consultancy firms in the preparation of eco tourism projects.
 Jora felt need for creation of more accommodation at the site and directed the concerned authorities to formulate a project report for construction of budgeted accommodation to facilitate the coming visitors there. He said Government would acquire 31 kanals of land at the site for creation of tourism related infrastructure at a cost of Rs. 70 lakh which includes public park, parking lot, view points. He said birds watching tower, view points and foot paths around the lake would be also constructed at a cost of Rs. 20 lakhs.
 During the inspection, the Minister was briefed that a children park, toilet block and view points costing to Rs. 30 lakh have been developed in the area besides tower lights were also installed around the lake.   Jora directed the concerned authorities to speed up the process of land acquisition around the lake which would be kept as no construction zone on the periphery of the lake.
 The Minister held a meeting with various tourist related persons of the area and assured them that their demands and suggestions would be considered for the promotion of tourism. He directed the concerned authorities to ensure issuance of permission for purchase of boats to local unemployed youth.
 The Minister also stressed for preparation of a master plan in consultation with the expert consultant that encompasses all the required infrastructure facilities. He said that development authorities have been created with the objective to create more health spots in the State so that the tourists look beyond traditional tourist places and extend their stay in the State.
 Later, the Minister visited at Sidhra and took stock of hover rafting in river Tawi.
 The hover rafting was started in private sector by   Rajiv Kotwal recently. The Minister on the occasion took a ride in hover craft from Sidhra to Gujjar Nagar for assessing the avenues of exploration hover rafting in river Tawi for promoting it at a large scale in the State for captivating domestic and foreign adventure lovers.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT
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