STC vows to encourage investment in Kund Park

Published December 11, 2005

PESHAWAR, Dec 10: The Sarhad Tourism Corporation (STC) has vowed to encourage investment in the Kund National Park, besides upgrading the Tourism Complex Kund (TCK), Tourism Hotel & Floating Restaurant (THFR) and Suspension Bridge to develop the park by promoting tourism potential of the area.

“The STC will encourage investments in these projects by giving technical assistance to the investors for enhancement of the potential of the Kund National Park at the confluence of River Indus and Kabul,” official sources told APP on Saturday.

The STC has chalked out a plan to persuade the investors for investment of an estimated Rs120 million in the TCK project, saying that the investor would earn about Rs120 million per year from the project.

The TCK project, the official said, would reinforce the existing tourism facilities in the province and would attract a large number of tourists. The total estimated annual operating cost of the project would be Rs50 million.

The source said NWFP Chief Minster Akram Khan Durrani is taking keen interest to develop the Kund National Park. Under his directives, he said, the STC had already planned to establish the Kund Tourism Hotel and Floating Restaurant with an estimated cost of Rs60 million where inexpensive and affordable accommodation facilities would be available for tourists and nature lovers. The investor would earn Rs20 million per year from the hotel, he added.

The provincial government, he disclosed, had proposed a plan to construct a suspension bridge on the River Indus and Kabul to enter the park. The total revenue from the bridge was estimated at Rs10 million per year.