Roadblocks to bring in tourists to Karnali

"Only the target has been made public," provincial assembly member Dakshina Shahi said to Kantipur, "no attention has been paid to upgrading the road."

'Covid epidemic, weak physical infrastructure including dilapidated roads have not been able to attract tourists,' he said, 'economic recession has also brought crisis in the tourism sector.' He said that even though some new hotels have come into operation in Surkhet, Kalikot and Jumla targeting the tourists going to Rara, there has been no business.

Ratan Bahadur Shahi, president of the Kalikot Industry and Commerce Association, said that due to the landslides in hundreds of places on the Karnali highway in 2007, economic recession, etc., the number of tourists coming to Rara has decreased. "Earlier, during the season, three to four hundred domestic tourists used to come to Rara via Calikot," he said. According to him, in order to make the Ghumau Desh campaign a success, the businessmen should also provide facilities to the tourists.

Even though Otasil technology was pitched 7 years ago with the help of the World Bank in the Surkhet-Jumla section of the narrow and difficult Karnali highway, the pitch is stuck in all places and becomes dusty when the sun shines and muddy when it rains. Since the road to Karnali is not fast, most of the tourists who come to visit complain. External tourists to Rara travel through Talcha airport by air, but domestic tourists come by land.

The Karnali state government has set an ambitious target of reaching 1 million tourists within a year from Baisakh to Chaitra two years ago, but this number has been limited to around 200,000 so far. "If the number of visitors to Rara continues at the current rate, the goal of bringing in one million tourists in the first year will not be met in 5 years," Raju Karki, a businessman from Mugu expressed his disappointment, "The government has to invest with the target."

Karnali highway Surkhet-Jumla road Surkhet, Dailekh, Kalikot and Jumla sections are all pitched . Hasta Bahadur Bam, President of the Rara Karnali Transport Professionals Association, said that the roads were so dirty and muddled that most of the places were not supposed to have been pitched. "The condition of the Karnali highway is dilapidated," he said. He said that the safety measures put in place to prevent accidents on the Karnali highway have been broken in most places.

Due to dilapidated roads, it is difficult to reach Jumla from Nepalgunj by passenger bus in one day. "The road is bad," he said. He also told that passengers going to Rara in Mugu are afraid to board the bus because of the bad condition of the road.

6 years ago, reaching Rara in Karnali on Baisakh 1, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli announced that tourism is the main base for the prosperity of Karnali and launched the Rara Tourism Festival, but there has been no improvement in road construction and maintenance, Congress Mugu Party Secretary Manjan Karki said .

External tourists coming to Karnali are only 5 percent, but domestic tourists are coming from within Nepal targeting the main Rara.

It is very difficult to deliver 1 million tourists to Rara through Karnali highway with narrow and dilapidated roads, incomplete bridges over rivers and extreme turns. Although tourism, hydroelectricity and herbs are the main sources of Karnali, the state government has declared the tourism year as the first base, considering the tourism sector as the first base, due to the situation of needing to raise more investment in other sectors . The tourism sector also lacks minimum infrastructure.

Since the track was put into operation in the first phase, Otasil tarpaulin has been completed on 066 from Surkhet to Dailekh and 070 from Khidkijula ​​to Jumla, but now 90 percent of the tarpaulin has come off due to the fact that it is dusty when the sun shines and slippery when it rains.

Even though one and a half billion has been spent on black paper from Surkhet to Jumla, the locals complain that due to the poor quality, too many accidents happen on this road. Even civil society leader Damanraj Bam is not confident that the provincial government's plan to transport 1 million domestic and foreign tourists through this dilapidated road will be completed.

The former member of Karnali Tourism Ward, Chitrasingh Villager, said that there are still many things to be done, such as hotels with food and accommodation to attract tourists, management of home stays in some villages with road access, increasing flights from Talcha Airport in Jumla and Mugu, ensuring tourist-friendly behavior and environment and safety arrangements.  ;.

Bharat Acharya of Jumla Sinja said that although there was enthusiasm in the beginning of the Rara-Karnali tourism year which started on Baisakh 1, since then there is no enthusiasm among businessmen and locals. Pachaljharna in Calicut, Hilsa in Humla and Chefoksundo in Dolpa were simultaneously announced as the start of the tourist year.

While inaugurating the Rara Karnali Tourism Festival 6 years ago, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli promised to change the definition of Karnali as an area where the poor, needy, sick live and make it a province that people come to study and study. But the first condition necessary for that is the road, which has not yet become reliable. Government investment in road construction has been decreasing .