India to promote tourism in Ladakh, Kargil

By Ritu Sharma, New Delhi, Nov 22 : The Indian government is planning to improve infrastructure in the stark but picturesque Ladakh and Kargil regions of Jammu and Kashmir to promote tourism. Senior military officials say this will act as an additional bulwark against border threats from China or Pakistan.

Revamping infrastructure in the Ladakh region -- an extension of the Tibetan plateau in the high Himalayas -- would be beneficial for the troops posted there and would also give an impetus to tourism, senior armed forces officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IANS.

"Deliberations are on to make the airstrips and advanced landing grounds operational for civilian authorities for the purpose of increasing tourism," a senior official of the Western Air Command told IANS.

In the past two years, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has reactivated various airstrips close to the India-China border. This year on Sep 18, the IAF activated the Nyoma advanced landing ground to support army operations in the area.

The landing came 15 months after an AN-32 landed at Daulat-Beg-Oldie (DBO), the highest airfield in the world situated at an altitude of 16,200 feet. The IAF is also planning to reactivate several others airstrips on the India-China border.

"Nyoma was developed with an aim to connect the remote areas of the Ladakh region. This would also ensure movements in the area when the road traffic gets affected, during the harsh winters, besides enabling improved communication in the region," said the officer.

"The opening up, besides sending a signal about the capability of the force, was also to assert that Ladakh is very much part of India," said another senior military officer.

This is not the first time that the Indian government would be using tourism as a tool of border security. Earlier, the government had started a trek for civilians to the Siachen Glacier, which Pakistan has been claiming to be disputed territory.

India and China fought a war in 1962, during which the Chinese occupied a part of Ladakh. Recent media reports of Chinese incursions into Ladakh have been denied by both Indian and Chinese governments but have brought the boundary dispute into the limelight.

Not just airstrips, the Indian government is pumping money into the remote region to also build roads and other tourism facilities.

The tourism ministry has sanctioned Rs.120 million for Kargil -- the remote mountainous region in Jammu and Kashmir that got into Indian drawing rooms due to the 1999 conflict with Pakistan -- to bring it on the tourism map. Kargil is on the way from Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar to Leh, the headquarters of the Ladakh region.

"The tourism ministry has extended central financial assistance under the scheme of Product Infrastructure Development for Destinations and Circuits for tourism projects based on the project proposals received from them," Tourism Minister Kumari Selja had told parliament.

The government has sanctioned around Rs.48.45 million for the development of tourist facilities in and around Kargil, Rs.24.17 million for the development of Drass-Panikhar and Rs.47.232 million for the development of Drass-Sankhoo.

(Ritu Sharma can be contacted at ritu.s@ians.in)