Rains bring cheers to tourism, agri, power sectors

In the hill resorts of Nainital to Mussoorie, tourist season in Uttarakhand is at its peak courtesy widespread rains in the hill state during the past one month.

It is not just the cool climes of the hill state that had boosted the tourism sector alone. Rains have also brought cheers to power, drinking water and agriculture sectors as well. At least for Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, there are no worries on these fronts, experts said.

With the hotels and resorts bursting with tourists, travel agents are now advising tourists to be doubly sure about getting accommodations right in time. “Be it a hotel room or a helicopter seat in case you are travelling to Uttarakhand for summer holidays or a pilgrimage, make sure you get an accommodation in advance,” said Rajiv Gupta, a travel agent in Dehradun.

Besides Nainital and Mussoorie, tourists are also visiting in large number at lesser known tourist destinations like Binsar, Chakrata and Munsiyari.

“The tourism in Nainital is very good. But there are some problems in Mussoorie due to traffic snarls that had been occurring regularly now. Overall, the tourism is fine but the government must focus more on connectivity,” said S P Kochar, President of Uttarakhand Hotel Association.

Pilgrims are also travelling in large number to the chardham yatra route where they are even trekking to far-off pilgrim centres like Hemkund Sahib and Yamunotri in the Garhwal region.

Helicopter airlines like Pawan Hans and Prabhatam have also are also making a roaring business with the chardham yatra season.

But more than tourism sector, the power scenario has remained very good in the state with virtually no power cuts being reported due to a drastic fall in demand. “This time, we are lucky that there were no heavy power cuts,” said Pankaj Gupta, President of Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU).

K B K Mishra, Director Operation of the state run UJVN said the company was able to produce a record generation of 22.22 million units on Wednesday, mainly due to increase in water level of various rivers.

Madan Lal, Director of state agriculture department said the rains were good for the agriculture crops especially for the paddy sowing season.

Above all, the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan (UJS) has heaved a great sigh of relief. “We are thankful that we have a good rainfall.

Otherwise, it would have been great crisis for us especially when we are in the election year,” said a top official of the UJS.