Kupwara admin starts e-permission for ‘Border Tourism’
To make it easier for non-resident tourists to visit border areas, authorities in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district Monday inaugurated an online portal for e-permission.
Deputy Commissioner Kupwara Khalid Jahangir told a local news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that the launching of e-permission service portals is an innovative step of administration to boost the tourism activities in the district.
“It will also facilitate non-resident travellers, visiting border areas of Karnah, Keran and Machil in getting online permission with convenience,” he said, adding, “Until now, the permission was given offline for which the travellers had to consume time by visiting DC Office physically.”
The DC said that the online portal is part of the Lieutenant Governor’s mission to provide more and more online services to the common people for their convenience and easy access to the administration.
The portal was devised by NIC team Kupwara under the supervision of District Informatics Officer Kupwara, Abhishek Mali. The portal shall be looked after and monitored by the NIC team itself. Earlier, the District Informatics Officers gave demonstration of accessing the E-Permission portal and generated demo permission in presence of the Deputy Commissioner Kupwara.
Meanwhile, a top official said that any traveller, wishing to visit the border areas of Karnah, Keran and Machill can access the portal at: http://epass.kupwara.co.in
Notably, border tourism is getting a boost in north Kashmir as the ceasefire between India and Pakistan has been holding good for the last two years.
Trekkers, tourists, and locals have started thronging picturesque villages close to the LoC in Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora. Decades old closed tourist spots near LoC are now being visited by the locals almost after 30-years as the areas were under the shadow of guns for decades.
While picturesque Keran and Machhal are located along the LoC in Kupwara district, Gurez is a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains in Bandipora district and Uri town is located between the hills of Baramulla.
After remaining in the shadow of guns for decades, these areas are now gradually transforming it into the tourism destinations—(KNO)
