Mughal Road

                                         Tourism and Mughal road  a case  study

Introduction

According to Macintosh and Goelder(1986) Tourism is ‘’the sum of the phenomenena and relationships arising from the interaction of tourists, business suppliers, host governments and host communities in the attracting and hosting these tourists and other visitors.’’

 World Tourism :-

Theme for 2013: Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future

Tourism today is a trillion dollar sector involving the movement of over one billion tourists a year around the world and another five to six billion domestically.

In line with the 2013 United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation, the 2013 theme for World Tourism Day is Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future. As the most widely celebrated global day for tourism, it represents a unique opportunity to raise awareness of tourism’s role in water access and shine a spotlight on the sector’s contribution to a more sustainable water future.

Tourism has proven to provide environmentally sound solutions, as well as political and financial support, for the conservation and sustainable use of water sources. But more must be done. With a record one billion international tourists travelling in a single year in 2012, now is the time to commit to a more sustainable tourism sector in order to protect our common future.

This year’s theme highlights tourism’s role in water access and shines a spotlight on the actions currently being taken by the sector in order to contribute to a more sustainable water future, as well as the challenges ahead.

Types of Tourism:-

Tourism is basically travelling to another destination for the purposes of recreation, leisure, or business.

A person who travels to a destination and stays outside of where they usually live for more than 24 hours but less than one year is recognized as a tourist by the World Tourism Organization.

The type of tourism depends on the reason for travel. Travel can be to destinations that are domestic or international.

Domestic tourism involves residents travelling only within their country.

Inbound and Outbound tourism both describe types of international tourism.

Inbound tourism involves non-residents travelling within a country.

Outbound tourism, involves residents travelling within another country.

There are also many other types of tourism that fall under a “niche” or specialty travel category. This category of travel has evolved in recent years, and describes the various reasons why people travel for recreation, business or leisure.

Indian Tourism:-

      Tourism sector has one of the biggest advantage that it will never been changed by machines.

So it required manpower every time and it is estimated that in India in 2020 the number of foreign tourists would increase up to 55 lakhs . Therefore we can understand the growing market of service sector (tourism sector)  in India . The central tourism department of Indian government promoted the brand with “ Incredible India’’ The recent brand ambassador for brand Incredible India become Aamir Khan who recently visited Srinagar to promote the brand.    

J & K Tourism:-

 In all over the globe J&K is one of the state that has a competitive advantage over other tourist places in the world, i.e. the nature beauty of the state . From the stagnant water of  Dal lake to bullet flowing water of pahalgam to waterfall of Arhalbal all over only one thing the beauty of nature. Besides that a lots of Mughal architecture gardens over around the valley .Gulmargh the highest hill station , the semthan Top , The patnitop, verinag, Acheval and many more are some of the unique examples of their own.

Tourism industry in JK has a great importance because it is one of the main sectors in JK economy which provides employment of lakhs of people both directly or indirectly.

  And without any doubt Tourism industry of JK has a potential of providing employment more than all other departments, but one the main reason is that we have not such a infrastructure and the resources to provide better services to our guests (tourists)  

     

MUGHAL ROAD:- 

 Moghul Road is the road between Bafliaz, a town in the Poonch district, to Shopian district in the Kashmir valley. The road is 84km long, and situated in the Jammu and Kashmir state of India. It passes over PirPanjal Mountain range, at altitude of 11,500 ft (3505 m), that is higher than Banihal pass (2832 m).

The road brings the Poonch and Rajouri district closer to Srinagar in Kashmir valley. The distance between Srinagar and Poonch will be reduced from 588km to 126km. It makes for alternate road route to Kashmir valley from rest of India, other than over-crowded Jammu-Srinagar Highway through Jawahar Tunnel (Banihal Tunnel) (National Highway 1A). The road passes through Buffliaz, Behramgalla, shadrah sherief,Chandimarh,Poshana, Chattapani, Peer Ki Gali, Aliabad, Zaznar, Dubjan, Heerpora and Shopian.

The road was historically used by Moghul emperors to travel and conquer Kashmir during the sixteenth century. It was the route used by Akbar the Great to conquer Kashmir in 1586, and his son Emperor Jahangir died while returning from Kashmir on this road near Rajouri.

Construction and infrastructure:-

The double lane road is now open to light vehicles.

The new road was proposed in the 1950s, with the intention of improving the economy of Poonch and Rajouri districts. Then Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah had taken up this project in 1979 and named it "Mughal Road", but it came to halt as militancy took over. Bafliaz Bridge on the road was blown up by the militants.

The construction of the prestigious project was started in 2005 with a target of completion in March 2007 and an estimated cost of INR 255 crores. The road cuts through Hirpora Wildlife Sanctuary. Initially, there was opposition to the construction of the road because it would fragment the wildlife and inhibit movement of animals, especially the endangered Markhor goat in the region. Also, opponents claimed the road will get early snowfall in winter and hence will not serve as an alternate route to existing Jammu-Srinagar highway. Finally Supreme Court gave conditional permission for the

construction of the road. The construction work was completed on 4th December 2008, it is proposed to be open to traffic by summer of 2010 for light vehicles. Double lane road has already been completed as of August 2012. .

Beginning 2010, Mughal Road Car Rally is being organized every year covering 600 km including the picturesque stretch through PirPanjal.

The actual length of this road was 370 kms which was divided into 14 halting places from Lahore to Srinagar. Mosques and sarias were build by the mughal emperor. The halting places were established in such a way that the journey from one place to another could be travelled in a single day. The sarias build had the capacity to accommodate thousands of men in them and most of them were build along the riverside to meet the need of water for the carvan. At present the ruined structures are the clear evidence of mughal architect build near about 500 years ago. At present some of the sarias are used by defense personnel and some others have decayed to such an extent that they seem useless.

Services in Shopian district and Mughal road area:-

  From telecommunication to banking we have various players which provide their services to residents of the areas and the tourists of both domestic as well as foreign tourists. Some of the examples of the telecommunication service   provide players are as Bharti Airtel , BSNL, Aircel, Reliance and Vodafone among them BSNL have high coverage of network than other players.

In banking sector we have JK Bank, HDFC , SBI and PNB, but J &K  bank have maximum number of branch offices and highest market share as well.

Transportation; the transportation of mugahl road is almost all carried by private transport’s and travel agents. And government allow only light motor vehicles on the road therefore the state road transport corporation (SRTC) and state roadways are not running their vehicles over the muhgal road.