The Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad (MNJ) Road has been reopened to all sorts of traffic till the Batakundi area on Sunday, facilitating to reviving and boosting of the Covid-hit tourism industry in Kaghan valley this summer, the Kaghan Development Authority (KDA) said.
“If there is no calamity and weather goes well we expect a tourism boom in the valley during this season, as we have cleared the MNJ road to traffic till Batakundi one month ahead of its scheduled time,” KDA inspector Moazzam Khan told the media persons.
The tourism industry was closed and traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan has halted in October a year ago following the cessation of the MNJ road during a heavy snowfall in Kaghan valley.
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Moreover, the tourism sector of not only Kaghan valley, but rather the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had suffered adversely due to the Covid-related limitations and closure of the hospitality industry in the province in 2020 and 2021.
“The work on reopening of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road beyond Batakundi is well in progress and traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan would resume as rest of the portion of MNJ road has been cleared up to Babusar Top,” Moazzam Khan said.
He added that the tourism season in Kaghan valley, which usually remained at its peak during mid-May in previous years, had taken off with the approval of the main artery up to Naran, the commercial center of the valley, earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Seth Matiullah, the president of the hoteliers association in Kaghan valley, stated that a number of employees linked to the tourism industry were made redundant in the valley due to the Covid-19 prevalence in the country.
“This time, we are going to carry on our business activities in the entire season and expect the influx of visitors on Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azha as well. We have not seen such an opportunity during the last decade,” Matiullah said.
