Road disruption from Narayangadh to Muglin hits tourism hard

Chitwan, July 14

Tourism has badly been affected due to disturbances along the Narayangadh-Muglin road section in Chitwan.

Domestic and international tourists have been affected by disturbances and heavy traffic in the area.

Tourism in the area had slowly started picking up after the earthquake and the border blockade. “But frequent road obstruction in the name of road expansion project has pushed the industry backwards,” said entrepreneurs.

A road expansion project on the section is under way, obstructing transport along the road section since winter. The area is also prone to landslips triggered by even small rainfall.

Meanwhile, travel agencies have opted to send tourists to Pokhara instead of Chitwan due to the disturbances since monsoon began. Cancellation of bookings for Sauraha visits and in different hotels has increased of late.

Managing Director of Hotel Seven Star at Sauraha Madhab Duwadi said that almost all bookings for various seminars, training programmes, assemblies, and conferences were cancelled for the last two months due to the obstruction of the Narayangadh-Muglin road section.

“We are having difficulty operating our hotels as scheduled programmes have been cancelled,” he informed. He said that the programmes, which were scheduled to be held in Sauraha, were shifted to Pokhara and other destinations. “Even domestic tourists have cancelled their visit to Sauraha due to the disturbances on the road,” he added.

Similarly, Senior Vice-chairman of Regional Hotel Association Suman Ghimire said that fewer international tourists have entered Nepal after the devastating earthquake. Ghimire said that around 15 per cent of the total international tourists visited Sauraha this year, which is 50 per cent less than past years.

Ghimire added that huge amounts had been invested for the construction of hotels in Chitwan. He claimed that the tourism industry in the city would be destroyed if the problems persisted.

Nearly two lakh tourists had visited Chitwan National Park in 2013/14. Assistant Conservation Officer Nurendra Aryal of the park said that as many as 81,813 tourists had visited the park this fiscal.