Year: 2013

Battered by weak infrastructure and overlooking by government, all NGOs, associations and unions of the district have decided to hold a meeting in Manali on April 10 to prepare strategy to force government to strengthen the infrastructure including roads and flight connectivity ahead of summer tourism season. This is for the first time that hoteliers association, all taxi unions, various NGOs, beopar mandals, luxury coach unions, travel agent unions, adventure sports unions and all those who are directly or indirectly linked to tourism would congregate in Manali to discuss the issues pertaining to promotion of tourism. The meeting would be held under the chairmanship of hoteliers’ association president Anup Thakur. Issues like bad condition of national highway, improvement of Manali-Rohtang road, construction of bridge over river Beas and bypass road for town, resuming flight services to Kullu-Manali, toilet facilities between Manali and Rohtang pass, provision of mobile medical service at tourist places, channelization of river Beas, exploring new tourist destinations, maintenance of Naggar-Bijli Mahadev road, permission to use Hamta road, increasing the lower limit of central service tax from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 and lowering luxury tax rate from 10 to 5% would be discussed in the meeting, Thakur said. According to sources, the enraged people would take strict action and may agitate for the demand of better facilities for betterment of tourism industry. According to Thakur, hoteliers had discussed their problems with chief minister who had given assurance for all possible efforts from his side. “Summer tourist season is nearing and our weak infrastructure is surely going to leave a negative impact on tourists,” he said. The beautification of Mall Road that is going on at snail’s pace since last two years has also put its negative impact on the tourism. Now, executive committee of hoteliers has formed