MANSEHRA: With the Kaghan Development Authority’s reopening of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road to all types of traffic until Battakundi on Sunday, the tourism industry in the Kaghan valley should take off this summer after being crippled by the Coronavirus.
As a result of the Covid-19-related events, not only in the Kaghan valley but in the entire province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, tourism has suffered.
Hospitality industry embargos and closures in the province in 2020 and 2021.
“Unless there is a natural disaster, and assuming that the weather stays the same, tourism may boom in the Kaghan Valley during this period. We have opened the road to traffic until Battakundi one month earlier than planned,” Mohazam Khan (Kaghan Development Authority’s inspector) told reporters.
In October of last year, the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road was closed following the heaviest snowfall in the Kaghan valley, causing the tourism industry to close and traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan to cease. Reopening the road between Mansehra and Naran is well underway beyond Battakundi.
With the clearance of the main artery up to Naran, the commercial capital of the valley, earlier this month, the tourism season in Kaghan valley has begun, which was usually underway by mid-May in previous years.
Thousands of employees in the tourism industry in Kaghan valley were laid off because of the Covid-19 restriction in the country, according to Seth Matiullah, the president of the hoteliers association.
During Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azha, we expect to carry on our business activities as usual. He added, “And such an opportunity was not presented for the last ten years.”.
