Daily Times

The winter tourism has reached to its peak in Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa especially in Hazara and Malakand divisions where an influx of tourists and adventure sports lovers have arrived to enjoy snowfall and delicious trout fish with their families.

Following the Met Office’s forecast for rains and snowfall from (January 17-19) in upper parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Hazara and Malakand divisions, the tourists and adventure sports lovers along with families thronged to Naran and Kaghan Valleys in Mansehra district to enjoy light to heavy snowfall as well as famous trout fish in a cold weather conditions. Engulfed by black clouds hovering over the mighty Malika Parbath mountains, Kaghan and Naran have attracted snowfall lovers on weekend. From charpai to five stars hotels, restaurants to inns and motels to private rooms, all accommodation facilities are jam-packed with tourists and adventure sports lovers mostly arrived from KP and Punjab to enjoy snowfall in the famous hilly stations of Pakistan.

Being a gateway to Gilgit-Baltistan in summer through famous Babusir Pass, Naran is also the first stopover of tourists to enjoy snowfall, River Kunhar’s trout fish, boating and walking around the crystal clear blue water of the famous Saiful Malook lake spread over 1.06 square miles and horse riding around Anso lake located in the lap of snow-clad Malika Parbat’s mountains on the East of Kaghan.

Ehtisham Qaiser, an Urdu lecturer in a private College Peshawar told APP on Sunday that Naran and Kaghan is my favourite winter hilly stations where tourists enjoy snowfall as well famous trout fish in a single day trip.

“Naran’s natural beauty is beyond one’s imagination. Once a tourist enters, Naran and Kaghan take him in lap of its astonishing serene besides leaving inerasable imprints on visitors’ minds.” He said “my visit to Naran and Kaghan remains incomplete without visiting to Saiful Malook and Anso lakes to enjoy my favourite rainbow trout.”

Establishment of chairlift, cable car and catch fish sports at River Kunhar would help make Naran a hub of adventure sports, he suggested. Professor Ehtisham said that road infrastructure leading to these famous tourists destinations and sanitation services need marked improvement besides exorbitant hotels’ fare needed to be checked.

Latifur Rehman, Spokesman of Tourism Department told APP that winter tourism has reached to its peak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where tourists from across the country are coming in large numbers to enjoy snowfall at Nathiagali, Kalam, Naran-Kaghan, Malam Jabba and others valleys in Malakand and Hazara divisions. He said over 2.681 million tourists had visited KP during August 13, 2020 to September 30, 2020 including over 1.718 million tourists to Nathiagali, Thandyani, Kaghan, Naran, Saiful Malook lake and 6,64,000 to Swat.

He said three new ski resorts one each in Kaghan, Chitral and Swat would be developed to promote adventure sports, snowboarding, ice hockey and sports competition besides reducing load on the country’s lone Malam Jabba ski resort during winter.

Government has initiated work on tourism projects under KP Integrated Tourism Development Project (KPTDP) amounting to Rs 2,667.428 million, KP Integrated Tourism Development Project (KITE) amounting Rs 3,000 million and Rs 500 million for development package for Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) that would make KP a hub of tourism. He said work is underway on development of walking tracks on hilly stations including Nathiyagali to Thandiyani, Thandiyani to Satto and Mahnoor valley in Kaghan to Anso and Saiful Malook lakes to promote winter tourism. These tracks would have rest areas, sitting desks and other facilities for tourists besides information centres to be set up alongside the main roads in Shangal and Hazara divisions.

Oe each hill stations in Chitral, Abbottabad and two in Kaghan valley would be developed besides tourists’ police force were made operational in all hilly stations including Naran and Kaghan. These stations would have the facilities of accommodation, walking tracks, huts, horse-riding and others serviced for tourists.

To bolster tourism, Rs 4655.134 million are being spent on construction of access roads in Hazara division, Rs 320 million on development of camping pods, Rs 3044.553 million for construction of approach road to Sheikh Badin tourist resort, Rs 4812 million for construction of approach roads to tourist sites at Malakand division and Rs 2,200 million of tourists spots in the province. Latifur Rehman said Kaghan Development Authority (KDA) established in 1996, has been reactivated and building rules for Naran approved.

Besides placing of dusts bins between Balakot and Babusar top, he said the use of polythene bags were banned in Naran to curb plastic and water pollution in River Kunhar.

He said ban on illegal trout fishing in River Kunhar has been imposed and the community river rangers were being equipped with motorbikes to patrol along Kunhar River from Balakot to Babusar Top to check illegal fishing, trees cutting and mining in the area. Tout jumping out of water and then vanishing back into green waters of River Kunhar would be added as a new feature of adventure sports in Naran and hopefully work on the project would start this year. A separate place would be introduced for the release and catch of trout in Kunhar River. Four integrated tourism zones (ITZ) at Mankial in Swat, Thandiani in Abbottabad, Ganol in Manshera and Madaklasht in Lower Chitral would be developed and its master plan to be presented to the World Bank for implementation soon. There are six plans and programmes for uplift of ITZ Thandiani comprising a 428-room hotel and a resort for tourists while five projects are for infrastructure and other facilities. Thandiani zone would be established on 640 kanal.

Eight projects are for devolopment of Ganol tourism zone, including a 218-room hotel and a resort while five projects are for infrastructure and other facilities. Ganol zone would be established on 480 kanal.