Houseful banners greet tourists in Nainital

Nainital, June 12

The popular hill station, Nainital,    has shut its doors to tourists arriving in vehicles, with the authorities putting up houseful banners at various points on the outskirts of the resort town. 

The move comes after the Uttarakhand High Court reprimanded the authorities for poor traffic management in the town.

Instead of welcome boards, tourists coming to the hill town are now greeted by ‘Nainital Houseful’ banners in Hindi at all approach roads to the tourist hotspot, including Bhimtal Crossing, Kathgodham Police Chowki Crossing and Nariman Crossing.    

The banners were put up at these points on Monday as the authorities were having a tough time managing traffic, Nainital traffic police in-charge Mahesh Chandra said.            

He said there were 12 parking lots in Nainital which could accommodate nearly 2,000 four-wheelers, but the town had been witnessing the arrival of 3,000 to 4,000 tourist vehicles per day.    

“The traffic scene literally goes out of gear when ‘weekend tourists’ from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh pour in,” he said.     “In a situation like this, we have no choice but to urge tourists to leave their vehicles beyond the limits of the town,” he said.   Tourist vehicles are being stopped temporarily on the city’s outskirts like Kaladunghi, Narayan Nagar, Roosi bypass and others. — PTI