Tourism Department shelves project in scenic Kumrat

DIR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism Department has rejected the plan to launch “Camping Paradise Project” in the picturesque and scenic valley of Kumrat though Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had announced the scheme during his visit to the valley in May.

Sources in the Tourism Department said the project was being shifted from Kumrat to somewhere else.Imran Khan declared that Kumrat valley is the most beautiful and scenic valley across Pakistan. He announced making the valley a national park and invited tourists to visit Kumrat valley.

After his announcement, hundreds of thousands of tourists from across the country came to the scenic valley during Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azha and enjoyed its natural beauty and eye-catching sceneries.

Sources said that the PTI chairman had directed the provincial government to launch camping paradise project in Kumrat to promote tourism there and provide job opportunities to local people. 

They said that even the PC-1 of the project had also been approved and initial documentation was prepared after directions of the provincial government to the department. The sources said a land of 71 kanals had also been acquired for the project.

They said the Tourism Department had offered rent of Rs70,000 per year to landowners and assured jobs to the local residents while the owners were demanding of Rs0.5 million and jobs for landowners’ families only. However, the department was insisting to give jobs to commoners and poor people of the area.

The sources said that due to these differences, the project worth billions of rupees was now being shifted from Kumrat to another place.Sajjad Saeed, the general manager in Tourism Department at Peshawar, neither received phone calls, nor replied to the messages sent to him by this correspondent.

Residents of Kumrat, Thal and Upper Dir have demanded Imran Khan to take immediate action and ask the provincial government and Tourism Department top officials why they were shifting the project to another place from Kumrat.