Patnitop hill station grapples with inadequate amenities

Arteev Sharma & Deepanker Gupta

Tribune Reporters

Jammu/Udhampur, July 20

The Jammu region’s most popular hill station, Patnitop, has been grappling with inadequate basic infrastructure, including wayside amenities for visitors like potable water, dustbins, washrooms and health services.

The interior roads, particularly the circular road, at the hill station are in poor shape and a spell of rain compounds the problems of tourists. The hill station also does not have a round-the-clock electricity supply. Visitors said the state Tourism Department had not augmented the facilities, considering the increasing number of tourists. “The hill station lacks adequate parking spaces due to which tourists are forced to park their vehicles along congested roads which leads to frequent traffic jams. The circular road is in a dilapidated condition and it poses a risk to the lives of people whenever it rains heavily in the area,” said Raj Singh, a tourist from Gandhi Nagar area of Jammu city.

Subash Chander, a resident of Udhampur, said, “The PHE Department has failed to provide drinking water to tourists and they are forced to buy packed water bottles. Besides, all lanes and drains are choked and there is no mechanism to collect the garbage littered all around. A virtual mess has been created as the dustbins are either lying damaged or not available at all.”

“Local shopkeepers and hoteliers have started feeling the heat of government’s indifference as there is an immediate need to create more wayside amenities for visitors here,” Chander said.

A senior PHE official claimed that his department was left with only 30 per cent capacity water to cater to heavy tourist influx in the summer season. “Nearly two lakh gallons of water per day is required to sufficiently cater to the tourists’ need at Patnitop during the peak summer days,” the official said.

“For the past 60 years, Kud, Patnitop and Batote are being supplied water by two sources, i.e. Chawk Nallah and Shivgarh Nallah, both in Batote. Over the years, though a large number of constructions have come up in all three destinations and tourists’ number has been swelling, more water sources cannot be added for the supply as the area is dependent on rain water only,” the official said. He said, “Patnitop is left with only four hours of water supply in the evening which is very less to cater to all.” Des Raj Bhagat, Superintending Engineer, Public Works Department (PWD), Udhampur said, “Work for the blacktopping of the circular road was allotted but it could not take off because of certain reasons. We are hopeful that the work would be completed soon.”