With the recent opening of the Tulip Garden the tourist season in Kashmir has kicked off, but the Boulevard around Dal Lake leading to many must-see destinations is in a shambles.
The irritating condition of the showcase road is bound to transmita bad impression through thousands of Indian and foreign tourists expected tovisit Kashmir this season.
Large potholes disfigured road surface and underconstruction pathways give am impression of neglect of the central touristdistrict of Srinagar most visitors to Kashmir pass through.
People associated with tourism say that the barely survivingKashmir tourism keeps taking blows due to prevailing situation in Kashmir andlack of basic infrastructure in tourism hubs like Dalgate is making things worse.
“Tourist season has kicked off and this is the state ofroads at the tourist hub where most of tourist arrive and stay first. I fail toremember when boulevard road was in such a bad shape last time,” said a vendornear Tulip Garden.
Construction material is lying along the footpaths ofBoulevard as contractors have boycotted work awaiting their pending paymentsfrom the government.
“All the major tourist spots like Mughal Gardens and Asia’slargest tulip garden are situated along this road on the bank of Dal lake, suchbad shape of roads is really irritating. Such damaged roads cause massivetraffic jams and also end up increasing travel time,” said Irfan Ahmed a localvisitor to the garden.
Deputy Commissioner for Srinagar, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary saidthe tendering process regarding the work on city roads was nearing completion.
“The development work has taken a hit due to the strikecalled by contactors. Since we have addressed their grievances, work on cityroads will start in this month on priority basis,” Choudhary told GreaterKashmir.
“Most of the roads get damaged during the haphazard snowclearance in winters. I recently called a meeting so that this won’t happennext year once we fix roads. We don’t want damaging and fixing of roads to bean annual affair,” he said.