Tourists descend on Murree

Thousands flock to parks in twin cities as Covid-19 restrictions eased

RAWALPINDI:

Hordes of tourists descended on Murree on the first day of the end of lockdown which was imposed four months ago by the government as part of social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease.

As soon as the tourist spots opened, an extraordinary crowd of tourists reached Murree from Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other areas of the country. Extraordinary rush on Murree Expressway and GT Road caused traffic jams and people were left stranded in kong queues of vehicles.

Meanwhile, at the hill station, traffic snarls were seen at at Jhika Gali, GPO Chowk, Guldana, Kashmir Point and other roads causing encumbrance to the tourists, visitors told The Express Tribune.

Additional traffic police personnel could not alleviate the traffic problems in Murree, a team of Daily Express observed. The federal government, seeing the steady decline in Covid-19 cases, reopened all tourist destinations under SOPs after five months. The end of restrictions on tourist and recreational spots on Friday led to influx of tourists in Murree on Saturday.

Other places including Ayubia, Thandiani also experienced extraordinary rush of visitors hungry for excursion since past five months.

Abdul Ghafoor who had come with friends and family from Quetta said he found car parking six kilometres away from the hotel where the group was staying. “There is such a rush of people that it is difficult to find even a bottle water, everything is sold out at stalls,” he said.

Muhammad Hussain who came to Murree with his friends on motorbikes all the way from Mardan said everyone was happy on resumption of tourism. However, he said, the hoteliers have increased their room rent three fold, maybe to cover the losses.

People flock to parks

The parks of the garrison city saw a rush of families on Saturday on reopening after over four months.

The government had closed all parks and tourists spots in the twin cities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

All 55 parks in the garrison city including Ayub Park, Jungle Kingdom as well as the tourist spots in Islamabad Shakapariyan, Daman-e-Koh, Rawal Dam, Pir Sohawa were jam packed with people who had waited for almost 137 days to spend some time there to relax.

The families, particularly children, were overjoyed to visit the recreational sites after a long time and the usual hustle and bustle was seen at the public spots.

The canteens in the parks have also been reopened and the vendors took a sigh of relief too.

Young visitors including Muhammad Arsalan, Nawazish, and Zahid joyfully expressed that they would be able to enjoy their remaining vacations before the schools reopen. They added that apart from studies during the lockdown situation, they would now have the option to visit the parks to take the load off.

They have also made a list of parks they would go to one by one while they were extremely excited to do boating and take scenic chairlift rides.

The parents, subsequently, also backed the government’s decision, expressing that the parks do not get usually get so much overcrowded that the social distancing protocols could not be followed. They added that the precautionary guidelines including social distancing could easily be implemented by the visiting families.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2020.