2023 figures: RTO issues 2,200 permits as more tourists made beeline for Valley

Srinagar tops the list among the 10 districts of the Valley with over 1,200 route permits issued. From past many years, the road permits were not bring issued due to unknown reasons

Owing to a spike in tourism from the last two years, Kashmir regional transport office (RTO) has successfully issued more than 2,200 permits for vehicles in a single year. Most of the permits issues are for tourist cabs.

Srinagar tops the list among the 10 districts of the Valley with over 1,200 route permits issued. (PTI)

Srinagar tops the list among the 10 districts of the Valley with over 1,200 route permits issued. From past many years, the road permits were not bring issued due to unknown reasons.

Now, Kashmir RTO has sped up this process.

Officers in the transport department said that route permits were being issues at district level but were stopped at the transport commissioner level.

Kashmir regional transport officer Syed Shahnawaz Bukhari said they have issued record number of road permits for passenger vehicles in last year. “The permits were issued in short span of time to unemployed youths, transporters, businesses men and those who applied for them for commercial vehicles,” Bukhari said.

Bukhari added that since last two years there has witnessed goof tourism activity so many people also sought permits for high end vehicles for tourists. “I am surprised why very less permits were issued from Srinagar in the past,” he said adding that 2,200 is a record number of permits. “Of course we also earned good revenue by issuing permits to people,” he said.

He termed it as a record number for maxi cabs, taxis, and buses in the last six months. “This process was resumed after 10 years,” he said.

Since the abrogation of Article 370 tourism has started picking up. Especially in the year 2022 and 2023, Kashmir witnessed large number of tourists. In past two years around five million tourists have visited Kashmir.

Bukhari said transport sector was also being improved and latest facilities were created in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir, especially e-buses had been introduced in the Srinagar city as part of Srinagar Smart city project. “More buses will arrive in Kashmir,” he added.

Even those associated with tourism industry appreciated the move of issuing fast permits. “Today the tourists want high class facilities. So we need to upgrade our facilities so that we can attract more and more high end tourists towards Kashmir,” said Omar Iqbal, a tour operator. “If Kashmir has to be number one tourist place then we need to upgrade our transport sector also,” he added.

Bukhari said all efforts are underway for reliable public transport system in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir. “Apart from good transport system for tourists we are also working on proposal to reduce number of cars in the city and make it less overburdened.”