By IANS
Jammu : The Jammu and Kashmir government has worked out a proposal to have five-star hotels in Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Srinagar to cater to the needs of high spending tourists.
Currently, the valley has only one hotel of five-star category, Grand Palace, at the eastern bank of Dal Lake in Srinagar. But it alone hardly meets the accommodation requirements of tourists during the peak season.
In Srinagar, according to the proposal, another five-star hotel would be constructed at the site of the Tourist Reception Centre in collaboration with a firm owning chain of luxury hotels, a tourism official said here.
The government is also planning to take over the (India Tourism Development Corporation) hotel at Gulmarg and Centaur Lake View Hotel Srinagar to upgrade accommodation facilities there.
The proposal prepared by state tourism department would be placed before the government soon, the official said.
The plan was first thought of in early 2006 but could not be implemented as the then tourism minister Muzzaffar Hussain Baig, who was the inspiring spirit behind the move, was stripped of his post in August last year.
But the proposal has resurfaced after Baig returned to the state cabinet as deputy chief minister and was also given tourism portfolio.
Tourist numbers in the valley have touched the 300,000-mark this year despite fear stalking visitors owing to the grenade attacks last year, which killed 19 tourists.