Rock Garden witnesses record footfall

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17

The world famous Rock Garden received a record number of visitors today. Most of the visitors returned disappointed due to heavy rush.

While Rock Garden usually receives 3,000 to 4,000 visitors on an average daily, it received double the number of visitors on Sunday.

As the weather turned sunny today, several city residents also preferred to visit the Rock Garden. A large number of visitors from other states also reached the famous tourist spot.

Sources said around 8,000 visitors, including 1,000 children, thronged Rock Garden today. Rock Garden Society earned around Rs 2,20,000 from the sale of tickets today. The number of the visitors was around 4,600 on Saturday, while only 3,000 visitors reached the Rock Garden on Friday.

Long queues were witnessed at the ticket counters. The rush was so huge that even some of the visitors returned without visiting the Rock Garden.

One of the tourists from Maharashtra, who came in a group, said they wanted to see the Rock Garden, but after witnessing long queues they changed the plan. He said they did not have enough time to stand in queues as they were to reach Shimla before evening.

Ranjan, one of the members of the group, said had the administration started issuing online tickets for the Rock Garden, they would have got the chance to visit the famous tourist spot. He said if the administration starts online facility, then it would help visitors from other states to plan the visit in advance.

The Rock Garden Society had recently celebrated 93rd birth anniversary of Nek Chand. A film on the life and works of Nek Chand was also released, which is being shown to tourists on an LED in the open air theatre.