Peshawar    -   Hoteliers and tourist handlers in the scenic Swat valley say that all the roads are open to traffic and complained that videos on social media have scared tourists coming to the area. 

Speaking to The Nation, Swat Hotels Association President Haji Zahid Khan said that roads from Swat up to the far off Kalam valley are open. “Floods pass through seasonal streams and rivers and can’t affect the houses and markets that are at a distance and height from streams and river. However, those who had set up encroachments on riversides were hit by the recent flood,” he added. 

A tourist Munawwar Hussain, who has arrived along with several families of his relatives in Kalam, told this scribe by phone that there has been no flood in Kalaam during the last one week. “We have been in Kalaam for the last four days and have visited several places around Kalaam bazaar,” he added.

Kalaam Hotels Association president Dr Abdul Wadood told The Nation by phone that the flood has only washed away a mosque in Bahrain Bazaar. “But that mosque had been constructed on a huge boulder amid the river,” he added.

It merits to mention here that hotels in Swat and other districts remained shut amid the corona lockdown for several months, and hoteliers had been waiting for the go-ahead from the government to reopen their businesses. However, they complained that the recent reports about flooding were scaring prospective tourists away from the area.

The KP Tourism Corporation has recently started training workshops for tourist handlers and administration officials of the districts that are home to tourist locations, with an aim to ensure the implementation of the anti-corona SOPs in their respective areas.