PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has handed over 169 rest houses of different departments in the province to the tourism department to promote tourism and increase tourist facilities.

A notification issued here said 169 rest houses previously used by government officials only were handed over to the tourism department on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan to help boost tourism and upgrade facilities for tourists in the province.

Among them are Governor’s House, Karnak House, Chief Minister’s House, Speaker’s House and Inspector General of Police’s House in the scenic Galiyat area.

The government has handed over the rest houses earlier used by officials of the departments concerned only to the tourism department after the provincial cabinet decided earlier this month about the transfer of their management and human resource to it.

The facilities will be open to tourists after renovation

The rest houses of the communication and works, irrigation, local government, police, and forest departments were handed over to the tourism department.

The notification said the rest houses would be renovated and opened to tourists for stay.

The officials said the tourists would book rooms in rest houses using the official website of the tourism department.

They said online booking would help facilitate tourists intending to stay in those rest houses.

The government had announced a new visa policy in Jan this year to encourage tourism in the country and open it to the world. The policy relaxed visa requirements for 48 countries and increased the number of countries covered by the visa on arrival facility from 24 to 50.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2019