The tall claims of making Jharkhand a tourism hub encounter the ugly realities of bureaucratic red tape and laid back attitude of the authorities, the moment one actually begins planning to explore some of the most sought after tourist destinations of the State. Adding more insult to the injury is, perhaps, the lack of basic facilities at tourists' hot spots.
Picture this! Netarhat, known as the 'Queen of Chhotanagpur', about 156 km from Ranchi, is a travellers' paradise covered with thick forests and full of natural beauty. The popular summer destination, situated at a height of 3,700 feet above sea level, is famous for breath taking sunrise and sunset views coupled with several other natural legacies.
However, one may have to travel more on the World Wide Web than to drive down to Netarhat merely in order to find a contact number to book a room there. There is a hotel, a Forest Guest House and a Dak Bungalow. Though the hotel and the guest house can be booked over phone, one may have to send a messenger like the good old days to book a room at the best accommodation - the Dak Bungalow. For, there is no means of direct communication to the place.
The rooms are booked by the latehar District administration, which due to lack of resources, fails most of the times to convey the details to chowkidars present at the Dak Bungalow few kilometres away from there. There is only one mobile phone available with the cook to serve the purpose and thus the communication chain gets strangled most of the times causing immense trouble to tourists.
The most popular sunset view site named after a British girl Magnolia, is also devoid of any official guide, eatery let alone a water tap to get drinking water. Thankfully, there are locals, who serve tea and Pakora to the guests at site named Magnolia Point about 10 kms away from Netarhat.
A number of other popular spots like the Koyal View, the gardens and the waterfalls also are untouched by the government. There is no signboard even at the Koyal View where one may find the best view of the valley and the sprawling beauty of forests with Koyal river.
The most depressing site at the entrance of Netarhat is a ladies' toilet made of jute bag sheets. The signboard indicates towards a urinal only for ladies but the view and smell of the filthy site is so sickening that no woman would even dare to see that place.
On being asked about the lacuna of the department Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director Sunil Kumar said that the plans to develop the spot as a better tourist destination were in the final stages. "We have budgetary provisions for developing the site and we expect that by the end of this financial year we will get all facilities there," he added.