Uttarakhand recently announced that it is ready to receive pilgrims at the Char Dhams and that it is stepping up amenities and infrastructure to make the spiritual journey easy and comfortable for the millions who throng to these places of worship. Next on the agenda could be MICE tourism. Speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld, Vivek Singh Chauhan, deputy director, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board informed, “Work on construction of a convention centre is already on. The convention centre will be in Dehradun and will have the capacity to accomodate 1000 people.”
The state government has already spent around INR 700 crore of the INR 1600 crore allotted for 2015-16. Harish Rawat, chief minister, Uttarakhand, stated, “We expect the number of visitors for Char Dham yatra, which is scheduled to start on April 26, to increase from five lakh visitors last year to 40 lakh this year. The state government is also giving tax holiday for one year to hoteliers on the route of Char Dham which will enable them to provide low cost accommodations and food to pilgrims. To attract more senior citizen pilgrims, the state government is also offering 25 per cent subsidy for helicopters to Kedarnath. The ropeway to Kedarnath will aslo be ready by next year.” Kedarnath has three helipads that can even accommodate the huge MI 26 helicopters.” He informed that they have built a three-tier protective wall around the Kedarnath temple. “This protective wall will be able to withstand ten times the velocity of the disaster which happened in 2013,” said Rawat.
The minister also announced that the tourism department will also organise the Auli Ski Carnival soon. The state is also developing two more Dhams – Jageshwar near Nainital and Madh maheshwar – to further draw in tourists.