With hotels, resorts and guest houses packed to their capacity with tourists in the lake city of Nainital and other hill tourist destinations across Kumaon division, people here are all set to embrace the New Year 2015 with joy and gaiety.
Visitors from different parts of the country and also abroad throng Nainital every year to be part of the New Year revelry. Occupancy in hotels and guest houses is reported to be high for many days. Among other things, improved weather conditions may account for the large tourist turnout in the lake city as well as its adjacent areas. With the historic Mall Road illuminated, sound and music shows and special offer of Kumaoni cuisines by the hospitality sector among other dishes to their guests are main attractions of the New Year celebrations in Nainital.
Apart from relishing a variety of the Kumaoni cuisines during their hill sojourn, the guests may also make the most of the dishes of different parts of the country and abroad as the hoteliers have also made such arrangements, keeping in view the varied choices of their guests. Apart from relishing different delicacies and sound and music shows/ DJs, the organisers have also made arrangements for different game shows, children games, quiz competitions and couple dance shows, to name a few, to attract the visitors.
However, to avoid any unpleasant incident during the celebrations in the lake city and elsewhere in the Kumaon division, the Nainial district administration and the police claim to have made elaborate security arrangements. Vehicular movements will remain restricted on many roads, including the Mall Road, in Nainital in view of the December 31 celebrations. To maintain law and order, quick reaction teams and dog squads will also assist police force deployed. Similarly, as the Nainital district police claims, tight security arrangements have also been made in other parts of the district, including Haldwani, Ramnagar and Bhimtal.
With special focus on all the inter -district points and other sensitive areas from the security point of view, the security personnel will deal strictly with the nuisance-makers during the annual event. Meanwhile, to welcome the tourists, cultural programmes have been organised on the New Year's Eve in Nainital on Wednesday. MlA from Nainital Sarita Arya said such cultural programmes would not just attract the tourists but promote the culture of the region as well. She also stressed on the need for such cultural shows during the summer tourist season too.