Srinagar, Dec 18: After five years of inordinate delay, the state government has finally decided to start work on reconstruction of the gutted Tourist Reception Centre with an added utility of serving as cultural centre of the City. 
 The TRC was gutted in an encounter on April 6, 2005, a day before flagging of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service. In 2006, the then government had decided to construct a five-star hotel at the spot. The project however was shelved due to strong opposition by the tourism stakeholders. Since then the proposal of TRC reconstruction had been facing a rollercoaster ride.
 However setting all the speculations to rest, the Minister of Tourism Nawang Rigzin Jora and his deputy Nasir Sogami alongwith the tourism officials recently visited the site for an on-the-spot-assessment and gave a green signal for its reconstruction by earmarking Rs 1.20 crore in the current financial year for the purpose.
 Jora said the reconstruction of the TRC Srinagar was on the government’s priority list owing to its historical importance and role of providing facilities to tourists visiting Srinagar.
 “The TRC Srinagar will have the added utility of serving as a cultural centre for the people of the City. While the TRC will be a source of entertainment for the locals, the tourists can have a glimpse of our rich culture and simultaneously get all the facilities under one roof,” Jora told Greater Kashmir.
 The Minister of State for Tourism said the process of finalizing the TRC’s design was on. “Hopefully, the construction work will start soon on war-footing,” Sogami said.
 The Director Tourism, Farooq Ahmad Shah said besides providing all the facilities, from banking to reservation, to the tourists, the TRC will have a chain of food courts to showcase different cuisines including the traditional Kashmiri dishes. 
 “We want to cash on the ambience of the TRC which overlooks the Koh-e-Suliaman hill and is surrounded by Chinars. Our objective is to build the TRC as a city centre which will also attract the locals as well,” Shah told Greater Kashmir.
 However, Shah maintained that the TRC will be built in tandem with the traditional architecture of Kashmir. Incidentally, the old TRC housed many government offices and tourist utilities including, Fisheries and Wildlife department and Airline and Railway reservation counters.
 “We will reserve counters for all the departments which are directly or indirectly related to tourism,” Shah added.
 Pertinently, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah earlier this month inaugurated TRC at Nowgam on the city outskirts near the Srinagar Railway Station. Officials maintain that it will cater to the tourists who will visit Kashmir by train.
 Shah said the efforts are on to strengthen the tourism infrastructure in the Valley and incorporate more facilities for attracting the tourists. “We have identified 32 villages in the Valley including Ladakh for creating Tourist Villages and work on 13 of them is in progress. The Tourist Villages will showcase the culture, arts and traditions of Kashmir and it will emerge as a major attraction for the tourists,” Shah said.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 18 Dec 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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