Opening of Jammu-Sialkot and Chamb cross border roads with Pakistan will boost tourism, business: J&K Minister Satish Sharma

Srinagar: The minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs in Jammu and Kashmir government Satish Sharma on Wednesday said that he will request Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open cross border roads in Chamb and R S Pora areas of Jammu connecting the region with Pakistan.

The Minister who also holds the charge for Transport, Youth Services and Sports, Science and Technology and Information Technology in the Abdullah led government said that the opening of cross border roads will help both tourism and business of the region.

“I will request the Chief Minister to urge the Prime Minister and help in opening of roads connecting Jammu with Sialkot and the road (across the border) in my constituency of Chamb as well. We can do barter trade in huge volumes and tourism will also get a boost,” said Sharma, while addressing a tourism summit organized by the J&K chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The minister further said that the train link connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country, likely to be operational sometime in the next year, will also boost tourism of the region.

“We are a pro-people government with pro-business policies. We will facilitate all the positive initiatives and I am hopeful that we are staring at a great future,” said Sharma, adding, “after the train connectivity, we will add at least one crore tourists in the next two years. The minister hoped that there would be so many tourists that the stakeholders might find it difficult to handle. The government, Sharma said is striving for rail connectivity for Rajouri and Poonch districts of Pirpanchal region, besides, getting Akhnoor in Jammu and Shiv Khori in Reasi on the tourist map.

On the similar lines, Nasir Aslam Wani, who is the advisor to J&K CM, hoped that the train connectivity will increase the flow of tourists. “Tourism stakeholders have to focus on exploring new destinations and promote activities like golfing and skiing, which will attract high end tourism,” said Wani.

The National Conference legislator from Gulmarg, Farooq Shah stressed that the train connectivity also puts forth a challenge before the tourism stakeholders as it will attract tourists, who may be non-serious about ‘sustainable tourism or eco tourism.’

“First we have to stop calling and counting pilgrims as tourists, otherwise Tirupati would have been the number one tourist destination considering the sheer number of pilgrims who visit the temple. Also, we have to focus on quality tourism and advocate responsible tourist practices,” said Shah, a former bureaucrat, who has served in the tourism department in top positions for around 14 years. Shah said that tourism practices in France, Bhutan, Singapore and Malaysia, could be emulated to ensure sustainable tourism in this eco sensitive region.

“We should have a survey and data regarding the carrying capacity of each tourist destination otherwise, we may not be able to save these places from plunder and unwanted concretization,” said Shah.

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