Amid huge tourist rush, local visitors unable to find room in Pahalgam

Pahalgam: Pahalgam is witnessing a record breaking tourist footfall this year, triggering acute shortage of accommodation.

Hoteliers told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that with brisk tourist flow to Pahalgam, locals return home in the evening in the face of shortage of hotels.

Javaid Ahmad, a hotelier said that for the last one month tourists can be seen sleeping in vehicles and sometimes in parks and lawns of hotels when they fail to get rooms here.

Especially the problem especially aggravates on weekends when locals rush towards the tourist destination in south Kashmir.

“We went to Pahalgam with a plan to spend at least three nights but we had to return home on very first day as no room was available there,” said Waqar Ahmad. a resident of Shopian.

He said that they have suggested to their friends not to visit there without booking rooms in advance.

Officials told KNO that Pahalgam has room capacity of around 11000 and it is mostly occupied by domestic and international tourists.

They said that every night we have at least 11000 visitors and there are no rooms available for locals.

On asking about people sleeping on banks of Nallah Lidder, they said that PDA has banned the erection of tents on Lidder banks within the jurisdiction of PDA to prevent pollution in Lidder river and damage to fragile environs—(KNO)