Meeting point: Mufti wants Suchetgarh border on the lines of popular Wagah
Tribune News Service
Jammu, December 18
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today pitched for developing the Suchetgarh international border on the pattern of the Wagah border in Punjab so that people from both sides could meet at this point.
He promised to take up the issue with the Ministry of External Affairs. “This is the nearest place from Jammu on the Indian side and Sialkot from the Pakistan side. If developed like the Wagah border, it could attract tourists from all over. Already Rs 7 crore were allotted for developing the area but that is not enough and we need more money,” Mufti said while talking to reporters on the Suchetgarh border, 30 km from here.
The Chief Minister was on tour to the border areas today and had a discussion with locals on development in the area. He said people of Jammu had complaints that the tourist footfall had come down in the Jammu after the train service had reached Katra. “If we need to acquire some land to develop this place, we will do that. This is one place in Jammu which can be developed as a tourist destination,” Mufti said.
“On the other side it is Sialkot and here it is Jammu. Earlier, when I used to visit this place, people from the other side also used to visit this place. It is my desire to develop this place as a tourist destination on the pattern of the Wagah border in Punjab,” the Chief Minister said.
He said the government would try to set up an amusement park near the international border in Suchetgarh. “We are trying our best to develop this place on the pattern of the Wagah border so that this place becomes a meeting point of the people from both sides,” he said.
“I feel that this is the closest point between the two sides which can also help become a bridge between the industries on either side,” the Chief Minister said, adding that this place could act as a meeting point between people from both sides, especially schoolchildren.
