Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is doing much publicity for promoting winter tourism in Kashmir, but the electricity curtailment is turning it into a damp squib. With the onset of winter, the Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited issued long hours of power curtailment in Srinagar and other districts of the Valley.
The KPDCL curtails electricity in metered areas of the Valley for five hours while in non-metered areas the duration is for nearly 10 hours. Tourism stakeholders said that amid long power cuts how will tourism get promoted and tourists stay in hotels and houseboats? Valley's prominent tour operator Ghulam Rasool Siah said that due to electricity houseboat and hotel owners can't keep their structures warm.
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Siah said, "The tourists shiver in the cold, which discourages them to visit Kashmir during winter. Houseboat and hotel owners use coal Bukharis, but they could cause fire and destroy structures." Abdul Rashid, Kashmir Houseboat Association, General Secretary, said that government should shorten curtailment duration in tourist areas in Kashmir for the promotion of winter tourism. Director of Tourism Fazlul Haseeb told ETV Bharat that the department has urged the KPDCL to provide continuous power supply to tourist areas so that tourism gets a fillip.
