Tourists face problems in Swat during Eid

PESHAWAR: Despite the claims made by the Swat administration, tourists who came from all over Pakistan faced multiple problems and many of them spent a sleepless night on the main Bahrain-Kalam Road due to the worst traffic jam on the dilapidated road.

The hotels and restaurants fleeced the tourists to cash in on the opportunity.

A large number of tourists thronged Swat valley during Eid holidays as they were fed up with the negative attitude of hoteliers in Murree and skyrocketing prices of hotel rooms and food over there.

Most of them were excited and had planned to visit Swat in advance. Some went with friends and colleagues and other took their families to escape the scorching heat in plain areas.

The Swat administration had claimed to have made a plan to facilitate tourists in the valley.

However, due to poor traffic management and lack of relevant people on duty, thousands of tourists were stuck up in the traffic and spent the night on the main Bahrain-Kalam Road.

Liaqat Ali was among those thousands of tourists who visited Swat on the second day of Eidul Fitr and were stuck up in traffic on Bahrain-Kalam Road and had to spend the sleepless night on the road. “We were all men in our car and could manage to bear this torture of that terrible night but there were women and children with many people and there was no proper way to help them out of this crisis,” recalled the visibly frustrated 57-year old tourist.

And when I reached Kalam, he said hoteliers had increased the room rent manifolds. “We have been in Kalam many a times before but this time they (hoteliers) had made up their mind to fleece people. A normal two-bedroom that would cost Rs2,000 earlier was given us to us for Rs5000,” he recalled complaining that food charges were beyond the reach of many people.

Another tourist, Shahid Iqbal, a government servant, voiced similar complaints.

He said they had left Kalam at 4 pm and reached Mardan the next day at 4 pm as they spent the night and the day on the road between Bahrain and Kalam. “We heard the road between Bahrain and Kalam has been built and that’s why planned to spend the Eid holidays in Swat. The weather in Kalam was matchless but the painful journey on the bumpy road was extra painful,” he complained, saying the road, in fact, didn’t exist in some places.

He held the government responsible for their woes, saying the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government in five years had done nothing for improving tourism in the Malakand region, and particularly Swat.

Most of the tourists complained of the poor condition of Bahrain-Kalam Road but were critical of the poor arrangements for smooth traffic flow made by the Swat administration.

Besides those suffering due to the bad road condition in Kalam, the tourists who visited a comparatively nearer Malam Jaba tourist spot faced almost same problems.

Irfanullah Khan left Peshawar with friends on the second day of Eid and was in Mingora by 3 pm same day.

However, he said it took them nine hours to get into Malam Jabba, apparently due to the traffic chaos. “It was 2am when we finally reached Malam Jabba. We were exhausted but getting a room in any hotel was beyond our reach,” he complained.

He added that they finally arranged some rooms in a normal hotel but it charged them for luxurious ones. He said there was nobody to check prices of the restaurants, saying they charged tourists Rs1,200 for a chicken dish.