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Srinagar houseboat owners unhappy with state government

Anupama Sushil - Srinagar

Houseboats have become an icon of Kashmir with their owners serving the tourists in their own special way and keeping tourism alive even in the worst of times. But they claim they are now being neglected by the state government.

Speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld, M Azim Tuman, chairman of Houseboat Owners Association, Srinagar said that out of the many houseboats that were earlier present, only 1,200 are left today and this number is rapidly going down. He blames the state government and the tourism corporation that are bent on building more and more hotels.

Tuman argues that the government must not ignore their tribe when tourists the world over identify Kashmir with houseboats and not hotels. "The domestic and the international tourists clearly prefer houseboats over hotels. Moreover, the existing houseboats can hold a large number of tourists and can prove to be a better accommodation option than hotels," he said.

Having made several attempts to maintain the existing houseboats, the association has been asking the government for financial assistance, but to no avail. Maintenance of the houseboats costs lakhs of rupees and the association is therefore seeking help in terms of loans. "But to our dismay, the government has not even been able to provide cranes for retrieving the houseboats that have sunk and have also blocked the canals which are preventing them from exchanging the houseboats for another across the river Jhelum. Even the demand for a dry dockyard for repair work has not been addressed till now," said Tuman.