In order to develop permanent water transport facility throughout the Jhelum River in Srinagar city, the authorities on Tuesday said it will kick start Jhelum Cruise Services in coming months to enable the road decongestion and to lessen the traffic snarls on city roads.They said the Srinagar Smart City Limited (SSCL) is working on the project for a long time and hopefully the dream of water transport service in the city will come true soon which will also impact over rising and frequent traffic jams in the city.As per the officials the purpose of this new developmental step is to revive decades-old water transport culture in Jhelum River which is one of the identities as well as heritage of Kashmir. “Being city an epicenter of activities, the long queues of vehicular movement on roads throughout the day has also been our concern to address it professionally”, the officials said.Speaking to Rising Kashmir, the Commissioner SMC and CEO Srinagar Smart City Limited, Amir Athar Khan said the main purpose of this development is to provide water transport facility to tourists and local citizens. He said the SSCL has floated the tenders and the operation and maintenance of the cruise boats will be solely responsibility of private players.“We want to revive decades-old water transport service in the city. The SSCL was working on this project since long and now the days are not far when city will have water transport facility wherein tourists and local citizens can travel throughout the city through cruise boat”, the CEO said.He said initially the service will run from Zero Bridge to Chattabal Veer and after a gradual period of time it will be extended to further areas.“At Chattabal Veer, there is a mechanism in place to ensure sufficient water level into the Jhelum River. It is why the service will run initially from that point”, the CEO said.The CEO said those wish to travel downtown areas through boat, can avail the facility. He also said the SSCL has notified 40 Ghats and 22 stops from Zero Bridge to Chattabal Veer junction pertaining to the project.“All Ghats and stops will also be developed and revamped as per the required standards”, the CEO said.Notably the River Cruise Service in River Jhelum is going to cover up all historical markets and places of downtown area of the Srinagar city including Khan-KaheMo’alla, BulBul Shah Masjid, ZainaKadal, BohriKadal etc.Amid rising traffic snarls in and outside city, there has been a long pending demand of general public to restart water transport service in order to ease out the mess and save the time of commuters who often remain stuck on roads for hours due to mismanagement of vehicular movement.The Chief Executive Officer, Srinagar Smart City Limited, Amir Athar Khan said though initially it will provide water travel to tourists and locals however in broader sense the service will be converted into water transport facility to locals in future.“Ideally the actual plan is to convert the facility into permanent water transport service to locals but initially we wish to grab the attention of tourists to historical sites and places located in old city of Srinagar”, the CEO said.He said the Department of Tourism has already procured hi-tech cruise boats in past which however are non-operational due to no trend of water transport in Jhelum and elsewhere. He said the procured boats by Department of Tourism will be made operational for the project and their operation and maintenance will be solely assigned to private players for which SSCL has floated tenders.It is worth to mention here that under Srinagar Smart City Limited, the SMC has taken up several developmental projects in hand for revamping, restructuring, beautifying, developing and restoring the pristine glory of cultural and heritage sites in the city.
SSCL to launch Jhelum Cruise Service to decongest city traffic
