Congress wants to open sensitive areas for tourists

SRINAGAR: Congress lawmakers from Ladakh demanded that the sensitive borders neighbouring Pakistan and China in the mountainous region should be opened for tourists including the Siachen base camp and Aryan villages.

The legislators on the floor of J&K assembly put forth the proposal of opening and promoting several unexplored or restricted tourist destinations in Ladakh region, which also include a site in Kargil, where centuries old rock statues of Buddha are located.

Nobra MLA Daldin Namgyal and Kargil MLA Asgar Ali Karbalai, both from the opposition Congress, have asserted these borders were not porous and thus pose no security threat, which could have stopped the government from taking these initiatives.

According to the legislators, Home Ministry was already aware of most of these proposals but haven’t decided on any of them yet. Daldin, demanded that Yarma Gondoo village, near Siachen base camp should be opened for foreign tourists and the base camp, which is 50km away from the Gondoo village, should be opened for local tourists.



“Siachen is already famous as the highest battle ground in the world and it needs no publicity. It has a huge potential of becoming worldclass tourist destination,” Namgyal told ET. The famous silk route leading towards China also falls in this area and is not completely accessible for tourists. The Nobra Valley, Namgyal demanded, should also have separate development authority, which will allow it to fast track development.

He said the last village in his constituency, Thang, near the Pakistan border, should also be opened for tourists. “We could generate money from Siachen rather than spending crores there. Let that money be spent on development of the area.” Similarly in Kargil and Zanskar Valley, which otherwise sees a huge rush of tourists, was yet to be explored completely said MLA Karbalai.

The underdeveloped and restricted areas in Kargil, Karbalai said, could be promoted along with Kargil War Memorial, which is already famous and attracts tourists. Kharchay village, 50 km from Kargil, which houses a thousand -year -old, 40 ft rock statue of Buddha, similar to Bamiyan statues in Afghanistan, is also unexplored.