Five motels, tent village ruining due to govt’s apathy

CHITRAL: Five motels established by the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) in various scenic sites in Chitral are ruining due to negligence on the part of relevant authorities, sources said on Sunday.

They said that the PTDC had set up five motels, one each in Chitral City, Birmoghlasht, Bamburet, Booni and Mastuj to facilitate tourists and visitors during their visit to the scenic valleys in the two districts.

They said that these motels were generating millions of rupees of revenue for the government and had also provided jobs to dozens of employees but the authorities concerned sacked the employees.

The sources added that the motels were now decaying since last one year as there was no one to take care of while tourists and visitors were also not allowed to visit the valleys due to Covid-19 pandemic.

“The price of five motels runs in billions but they are now in a dilapidated condition because of negligence of authorities concerned,” the sources added.

Similarly, the erstwhile Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had established a tented village in Bamburet in Kalash valley almost a year ago but that was also ruining due to the carelessness.

Millions of rupees, the sources said, were spent on the establishment of a tent village to facilitate tourists but the authorities seemed to have abandoned it.

The locals said that the relevant authorities should depute staff for the look after of the motels and tent village so they could be kept usable and neat for the tourists and visitors when the tourism restarts in the near future.