Special buses to offer ‘Jammu darshan’, tour of border areas

JAMMU:To give a boost to tourism during the ensuing Amarnath yatra, the Tourism Department, in collaboration with the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), will start two special buses for pilgrims, Jammu ‘darshan’ and border tour, from Yatri Niwas.

Traditional beats: Sadhus sing ‘bhajans’ at a base camp for the Amarnath yatra ahead of their registration in Jammu on Monday. The 48-day pilgrimage will begin on July 2. PTI

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 27

To give a boost to tourism during the ensuing Amarnath yatra, the Tourism Department, in collaboration with the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), will start two special buses for pilgrims, Jammu ‘darshan’ and border tour, from Yatri Niwas.

The buses will operate from Yatri Niwas at Bhagwati Nagar, which will facilitate pilgrims to have a tour of the city of temples and border areas.

There will be two buses for Jammu ‘darshan’, which will start from Yatri Niwas and cover seven destinations of Jammu city along with a guide for Amarnath pilgrims.

An amount of Rs 200 per passenger is to be paid for this service, which will take the pilgrims to seven important places in Jammu in between four and five hours.

One more bus will be operated twice a day for covering border areas, especially the Suchetgarh border. An amount of Rs 100 per passenger is to be paid to opt for this service from Yatri Niwas.

“The idea behind this service is to promote tourist destinations of Jammu and the border. It will provide facilities to pilgrims to visit all important tourist destinations of Jammu within a day,” said Sushma Chauhan, Director, Tourism, Jammu.

The bus for border areas will start its first trip at 9 am and reach Suchetgarh at 10:30 am. Tourists will have a view of the Indo-Pak border and Indian post of the BSF for about an hour. It will reach Yatri Niwas by 1 pm. Another trip will start at 3 pm and conclude at 7 pm.

The Jammu ‘darshan’ bus will start at 9 am. It will cover Ranbirashwar Temple, Amar Mahal, Mubarak Mandi, Peer Kho Raghunath Mandir, Balidan Stambh and Bahu Fort. It will conclude the tour at Yatri Niwas at 3:40 pm.

Apart from the special buses, the Tourism Department has decided to organise hour-long cultural events at Yatri Niwas in the evening to entertain pilgrims and introduce them to culture and traditions of Jammu and Kashmir.

“We have tried to upgrade facilities for pilgrims in Jammu to make their visit more convenient and comfortable. The department hopes that our efforts will help the tourism of Jammu during the yatra,” said Chauhan.