Tag Archives: Mehbooba Mufti

Tasaduq Mufti, Tourism Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, along with Sunil Kumar, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI),  welcomed the attendees at the 64th TAAI Convention in Srinagar on March 27. Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, was the chief guest at the event. The convention saw the registration of around 650 delegates and opened with a golf tournament at the Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar, followed by the formal inauguration at SKICC, Srinagar. The evening saw the attendance of ministers and senior officials of the Jammu and Kashmir government as well as representatives of airlines and the tourism industry. Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the delegates and hoped that the convention shall bring with it more tourism for the state. “We have a lot of tourism products — from mountains, waters, culture, golf courses, pilgrimage and many other diverse products,” she said in her speech. Sunil Kumar said that the TAAI Convention has always brought tourists to the destination and it will do the same for the state. Saying that it’s the 8th TAAI Convention in Jammu & Kashmir, which has come after 30 years to the state, he assured that they will not take this much time again to come back.

The upgraded passenger terminal building of Jammu Airport was inaugurated by Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister for Civil Aviation. Jammu Airport belongs to the Indian Air Force, Ministry of Defence and AAI maintains a Civil Enclave for civil aircraft operations. During the year 2016-17, passenger traffic movement at Jammu Airport reached 1.16 million and the passenger growth rate has touched 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2017-18. To cope with the increasing passenger growth and demand, expansion and upgradation of existing Terminal Building of Jammu Airport has been completed. The area of the terminal building is expanded from 6700 sq. mtrs. to 14,500 sq. mtrs. with an upgraded peak hour handling capacity of 720 passengers at a time, an increase from the existing 360 peak hour passengers. Also present at the occasion was Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation; Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region, PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space; Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir; Kavinder Gupta, Speaker of J&K Legislative Assembly; Shri Jugal Kishore Sharma, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Shri Shamsher Singh Manhas, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) along with Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India. The upgraded passenger Terminal Building of Jammu Airport is a glass and steel structure and is equipped with Passenger facilities and amenities like CUTE-complied Check-in Counters, Common Use Self-Service (CUSS) kiosk for check-in, central air-conditioning, two arrival conveyer belts, escalators and glass elevators, flight information display system, pa system with comfortable seating capacity.

For the first time, a state tourism policy is to be formulated for Jammu & Kashmir. This was informed by Farooq Shah, Secretary Tourism, Government of Jammu and Kashmir. Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir said that the state would invest Rs. 2400 crore to boost tourism and added that the policy will help connect locals with tourist and create opportunities of employment for jobless youth and women in the state. “Owing to the heavy inflow of tourists to the state and the increasing competition with tourist destinations abroad, it has become necessary for the state to upgrade existing hotels, guest houses and develop new destinations to attract more tourists,” said Shah. He further elaborated, “It is only possible when the state has a well-planned tourism policy that we can improve the sector. A comprehensive tourism policy is the need of an hour and will make a road map so that tourist places are fast developed on modern lines to cater to a huge tourist inflow without degrading the environment. By having the policy, government can identify such new destinations, create infrastructure there to attract tourists. We are also planning to promote eco-tourism in the state.” He informed that the government is expecting an investment of around Rs. 30000 crore from the private sector in next 10 years. Shah explained that a number of five star hotels including international brands will be coming up in the valley in a next few years, giving a boost to tourism in the state. Source: Indian Express