PESHAWAR, Jan 23: The government has chalked out a plan to identify potential tourist sites in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to attract tourists to the scenic valleys of the tribal regions , says a press release issued by the Fata Media Cell.

In the past, tourists expressed their concerns over security and the law and order situation and argued that poor communication infrastructure in tribal areas were their main concern for which tourism could not take off in the tribal areas.

Due to the development projects launched by the government in Fata, the communication infrastructure as well as the law and order situation had improved. As a result, the inaccessible areas were open to encourage tourists in the scenic valleys of Fata, the press release said.

The government was considering hiring experts from the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation and the Sarhad Tourism Corporation to develop and identify potential areas in the seven agencies which had rivers, a rich diversity of flora and fauna and waterfalls with a range of mountains some as high as 16,500 feet above sea-level for the establishment of tourist spots.

The area close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had a variety of flora and fauna and centuries-old architecture, but had sadly been declared out of bounds for tourists, except for the Khyber Pass and the Khyber Agency, for security reasons, the press release said and added that after the selection of potential sites in the seven agencies and adjoining FR regions, the government would build rest houses and motels to attract tourists. -APP