The barge boat services slated to be introduced on the Tehri dam reservoir for residents of Pratapnagar last year have not yet been started. The the Tourism Department had claimed that this facility would be started in December 2014 but has now deferred its introduction due to technical reasons. It is pertinent to mention here that after formation of the dam reservoir, the residents of Pratapnagar have to cover an additional 40 to 50 kilometres to reach the district headquarters, Rishikesh or Dehradun.
During the adventure sports festival organised at Koti colony here during October 2014, the department had announced its plan for introducing a barge service for the dam affected people. The announcement had made the locals hopeful of problems being resolved with the introduction of the barge service. Rural residents JP Juyal and Rakesh Panwar said that lakhs of people living around the Tehri dam reservoir have been forced to face various problems since creation of the reservoir.
The authorities had promised to introduce the barge service in December last year but more than a month having passed in the present year, there is no sign of the promised facility, they complained. It is worth mentioning here that the promised barge facility would greatly benefit the locals as it would be capable of ferrying more than 100 people at a time along with small vehicles and goods across the dam reservoir. Among other things, the barge would make the transportation of food items from the market and construction material more convenient.