Jammu, June 5
With over 24,000 pilgrims visiting the holy shrine of Vaishno Devi each day, Jammu is all set to witness a record pilgrim traffic during the current year.
According to Mr Rohit
Kansal, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, between January and May-end over 20 lakh pilgrims visited the holy
cave. He said with the introduction of several facilities, including online registration and booking in hotels and board guest houses, the pilgrim traffic had increased fourfold during the past four months.
He said if the current rush continued, the figures could cross last year’s mark by 20 per cent, when 54.09 lakh pilgrims visited the shrine.
The heavy rush of pilgrims to Vaishno Devi and an equally heavy tourist flow to the Kashmir valley have increased the occupancy rate in the hotels, guest houses and house boats.
According to Tourism Department officials, between 2,500 and 3,000 tourists reach Srinagar every day, encouraging house owners in areas near the Dal and Nigin lakes to open part of their houses to tourists. According to official records, all rooms in hotels, houseboats and guest houses stand booked till the end of August.
In Jammu and Katra, the occupancy rate in hotels and guest houses is 100 per cent. In Katra, owners of small houses too have set apart a couple of rooms to rent out to pilgrims.
As a result of the pilgrim and tourist rush, it takes up to 10 days for getting air tickets from Delhi to Srinagar or from Jammu to Delhi. In the case of the Railways, the period for confirmed tickets is between one and three months.
The taxis have also started charging higher.
One transporter admitted: “Since the number of taxis is small, some of us charge between Rs 900 and Rs 1,000 for a trip from Jammu to Katra as against the normal Rs 750.”
Similarly, hoteliers and houseboat owners are also charging higher rent.
Traders in Jammu and elsewhere feel that the improvement in the security scenario and the tourism promotion carried out by the state government in various parts of the country have given the boost to tourism.
They are hoping militants will not disturb the coming annual Amarnath Yatra.”
If the one-month yatra passes off peacefully, we may have a record business for the first time during the past 15 years,” say several house boat owners and hoteliers in the two capitals of the state.
