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KARACHI, Jan 17: A damaged patch of the road connecting the Gorakh Hills with the highway has been repaired and now people may easily go there, media persons were told on Saturday.
Speaking at a press briefing about the Sindh Tourism Development Corporation (STDC) in general and the Gorakh Hills in particular in the Mumtaz Mirza auditorium, Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo said the two-kilometre-long patch of the road connecting the hilltop with the national road network, at the Khawar Lak (Khawar Pass), had been badly damaged by the heavy rains in the area the previous year, but now it had been repaired and people could access the hilltop easily.
She said the government was in the process of developing the Gorakh Hills, situated some 450 kilometres north of Karachi in the Khirthar Hills at an altitude of over 5,685 feet, as a summer resort at a cost of about Rs1 billion. The amount would be equally shared by the federal and Sindh governments, out of which over Rs560 million had already been spent on building a 54-kilometre road from Wahi Pandhi, water supply from Hingan springs and Naigaj and the provision of electricity in the past 10 years.
Ms Palijo said a master-plan for the development of a summer resort at the Gorakh Hills was being prepared at a cost of over Rs17 million under which 2,000 acres at the hilltop would be developed initially. She said the project area had been declared “controlled” to keep effective monitoring and to prevent unscrupulous elements from encroaching on it.
Law & order
Referring to the issue of law and order, she said police posts would be set up along the road and at the resort to ensure the security of visitors. She said President Asif Ali Zardari, who was briefed on the project recently, had also offered to post army men there temporarily in case the law and order situation in the area worsened, she added.
The minister said that besides reconnecting the Gorakh Hills with the roadside plantation, plantation on 60 acres at the hilltop had been started. She said the head office of the development authority would be in Dadu while its camp offices would be at the resort and in the city.
Pointing out that 63 employees of the STDC had been regularised, she said that local people with merit would be preferred when hiring for all the vacancies was done for the Gorakh Hills project.
She said the STDC was also building 12 huts at the Keenjhar lake in addition to the six that were already in use. An emergency medical centre had been upgraded and an ambulance provided at the lake.
She said efforts were also being made to develop eco-tourism and plans for different projects in the coastal belt, Karoonjhar Hills in Nagar Parkar, the Thar desert, were being developed.
