The shadow of dark clouds are still hovering on Himachal Pradesh Tourism despite negligible relief given by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to Rohtang bound taxi operators and luxury buses.
The condition of the national highway between Kiratpur and Manali continues to be the most deplorable and fractured by bone-breaking potholes deterring tourists from visiting the green and panoramic valleys of the hill state on which the nature has showered all the bounties of natural beauties.
The tourists coming to Mandi, Kulu, Manali, lahul and Spitti bordering China are currently forced to follow a 50-60 km longer route diverting from Kiratpur via Una, Bhota, Kalkhar and Ner Chowk by-passing Swarghat, Bilaspur and Sundernagar to avoid jumps and jerks and save their costly vehicles.
Telling his tale of woes Amit Chhabra, senior manager of Bajaj Alianz life Insurance Co. ltd. told The Pioneer about the nightmarish experience of travelling from Kiratpur to Mandi negotiating big potholes causing jumps and jerks causing severe pain in his back. His colleague Sanjesh Kumar Gautam had the similar story to tell. He was irked by the worst condition of the road.
Due to pressure by the media a large scale work of repair and renovation was undertaken by the NHAI recently and the potholes were filled up.
But they could not bear the brunt of the first rain and reappeared, thanks to the connivance of executing agents and the contractors who allegedly filled up the pothole with earth instead of grit and stones.
As crores of rupees of the tax-payers went to the drain, the stern warning of the state Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh that the guilty officials would be demoted seemed to have fallen on the deaf ears.
Owners of costly cars and luxury and Volvo buses often complain that they were avoiding the risk of driving on the Kiratpur – Sunder nagar portion of the road. Randhir Thakur of Manali, who owns a fleet of Volvo buses laments that the State Government or the NHAI seem to be unconcerned about the pangs of the tourists and appear to be the least bothered about the unprecedented loss to the tourism industry of the hilly state.
It goes without saying that the present abysmal condition of the national highway is due to the unprecedented pressure on the road by thousands of overloaded cement laden trucks plying on the national highway round the clock. The cement giants, enjoying powerful political patronage seemed to be out to turn the green state into a desert grey by devastating its ecology.
Shimla based environmentalist Prof Ram Kumar Gupta, laments that the enormous potential of tourism in Himachal Pradesh is being spoiled blatantly by the powerful cement giants of the country and ironically the people of the state were being supplied cement at higher rates compared to those the adjoining states of Punjab and Haryana.
The cement giants, he adds, seem to bent upon to make it impossible to dash to the ground the dream conceived by the Prime Minister, Narender Modi, to make Himachal Pradesh a Switzerland of India.