Daily Times

UPPER DIR: The Tourism Department of Khyber PakhtoonKhwa (KP) has rejected making the “Camping Paradise” project in the picturesque and scenic valley of Kumrat as announced by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan during his visit to the valley in May, this year, adding that the project was being shifted to another place from Kumrat. This was revealed by top sources in the tourism department.

Imran Khan had described the Kumrat valley as the most beautiful and scenic valley in Pakistan and also announced making the valley a “national park”. Imran Khan also declared the Kumrat valley a valuable “discovery” for the tourists and also invited tourists to visit the Kumrat valley.

After his announcement hundreds of thousands tourists across the country came to the scenic valley during Eidul Fitr and enjoyed its natural beauty and eye-catching scenery for many days.

Sources said that after the PTI chairman’s announcement he directed the provincial government to launch a “Camping Paradise” project in Kumrat for the purpose of promoting tourism in Kumrat valley and providing opportunities of progress to the area as well providing jobs to the local people of Kumrat and Thal. They said that the PC-1 of the project had also been approved and an initial documentation was prepared after the directions of the provincial government to the department.

After the announcement of making the camping paradise project in Kumrat the residents of Kumrat, Thal and Kohistan valley as well as of the Upper Dir were very happy. The sources said that the provincial government and the KP tourism department had completed the initial homework for the project, adding that a land of 71 kanals had also acquired for the project.

Sources said that the tourism department had offered a rent of Rs 70,000 per year to land owners and surety of jobs to the local residents while the owners were demanding of Rs 0.5million and they were also demanding jobs for the owners’ family members. However the department was insisting on giving jobs to the common and poor people of the area. Sources said that now the project worth billions of rupees was being shifted from Kumrat to some other place.

Local residents of Kumrat, Thal and Upper Dir demanded of Imran Khan to take immediate action and ask the provincial government and the tourism department top officials why they were shifting the project to another place. They also threatened that they would organise a protest against the shifting of the Camping Paradise project from Kumrat if the PTI chairman did not take quick action on the issue.