Baseer Khan chairs meeting of Tourism Dept

Srinagar, Jul 8: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan Thursday directed the officers of the Tourism department to improve facilities for the tourists and take steps for generating better revenue from Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation properties.
He passed on these directions during a meeting at Civil Secretariat here regarding outsourcing of assets of Tourism department. The meeting was attended by Secretary Tourism, Sarmad Hafeez; Secretary Law, Achal Sethi; CEO JKERA, Dr. Syed Abid Rasheed Shah; MD JKTDC, Nisar Ahmad; Director Tourism Jammu, Vivekanand Rai and Director Tourism Kashmir, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Itoo.
While chairing the meeting, Advisor directed the officers to improve the facilities at various locations so that tourists enjoy the state of art facilities and better cuisine in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Advisor was given a detailed account of assets of the JKTDC, its revenue base and the facilities available for the tourists by Secretary Tourism. The Advisor directed the officers to turn these assets more productive and attractive for the Tourism sector to flourish. These assets could be better utilized by gainfully putting to use through Public-Private- Partnership mode or by outsourcing after proper assessment of its feasibility.
On a pilot basis, the Advisor directed officers to identify few places both in Jammu province and Kashmir province for the purpose of outsourcing in order to realize full potential of these assets. This will give an idea of revenue realization and accordingly future course of action could be devised for better management of assets. Advisor also said that modalities in this regard should be finalized by the Tourism department along with ERA at an earliest.
Advisor further said that quality of services provided to tourists in terms of stay and cuisine should be exemplary. Lieutenant Governor is personally intervening to make Jammu and Kashmir the most attractive Tourist Hub. He also said that upkeep of properties should be done on regular basis and stressed to make best use of wayside amenities. He added that many wayside amenities are not functional and are not addressing to the needs of the tourists for which they have been developed.
He said the facilities should be in top-notch condition having all the requisite facilities. All these facilities need to be further looked into and he directed both the directors of Tourism Jammu as well as Kashmir to come up with proper plan for their better usage.