PESHAWAR - Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak, on Sunday called for improved facilities in all scenic hill stations of the province.
He further directed for improved security measures in all such places. He also directed GDA to hire additional personnel for better traffic control and cleanliness all over Galyat areas to facilitate visitors. He underlined need for creating environment of competition with that of adjacent Murree for providing maximum facilities to the tourists in Galyat.
He was chairing a meeting of Galyat Development Authority (GDA) here wherein all the problems and issues about tourism in Galyat were taken into stock and necessary decisions taken. Provincial Minister for LG&RD Inayatullah, Economic Advisor to Chief Minister RafaqatUllah Babar, MPA Sardar Muhammad Idrees, Additional Chief Secretary Khalid Aziz, DG GDA Nazar Hussain Shah, Commissioner & DIG police Hazara, and administrative secretaries of the concerned departments attended the meeting.
The chief minister was told by GDA that old rest house in Khanaspur had been leased out on annual rent of Rs 1.47 million with condition that it would also be reconstructed as per master plan as well as lease rent would be increased annually as per fixed ratio.
Khattak expressed satisfaction on it and hoped that all other government rest houses would also be managed in such a manner to make them source of income and public recreation places instead of making them white elephants for government. He also approved construction of private rest places for tourists along roads in Galyat.
He in order to eliminate the encroachments in Galyat asked the commissioner Hazara and GDA to remove all the encroachments in consultation with local representatives including Sardar Idrees to get optimum results.
Khattak directed the concerned authorities to prepare a comprehensive plan for meeting all local needs and issues including the environmental pollution, encroachment, traffic hurdles, scarcity of clean drinking water and insufficient basic facilities for locals including health and education in scenic tourist areas of Galyat so that these areas could be made more attractive for tourists. Similarly he underlined the need of exploring and developing more tourist spots and scenic valleys under New Galyat Project to provide extra tourism facilities for the local and foreign tourists and attract more private investment.