One year after tragedy, Murree still a mess

After the deaths of at least 23 tourists in a snow-induced traffic jam in Murree exactly one year ago, a lot had been promised to improve various lacunas including parking problems, poor roads, insufficient hotels and security issues.

Murree, once a tourist paradise, is now fast losing its aesthetic appeal and romance and it has turned into a mess because of its poorly managed traffic and parking system and messy roads. It only has a parking capacity of 3,500 vehicles, however, each season more than 210,000 vehicles cars enter the hill station and that is almost sixty times more than what it was originally designed to cater to the traffic needs.

In Murree, most of the hotels lack parking spaces and cars are generally parked on the roadside and as a result, the roads get narrowed down and the traffic flows at a snail’s pace. Furthermore, the parking mafia including private contractors charge exorbitant sum from tourists with impunity. The hill station is a popular tourist destination, located roughly 40 kilometres from Islamabad and attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually.

Several incoming vehicles get stuck during the heavy snowfall on the town’s congested roads and on January 7, last year, at least 23 tourists died overnight when they were unable to receive food and medical attention due to extreme cold and unusual snowfall and poor planning.

After the tragedy, the Punjab government had decided to take strict measures including giving Murree the status of a district.

However, Murree still lacks basic facilities for the residents and tourists despite the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench passing an order, after six months of hearing, ordering to create a separate department in Murree during the snowfall, banning the cutting of trees, establishing parking plazas and removing encroachments and rationalising hotel rent. However, hardly any of the directives have been implemented in the district. Additional Deputy Commissioner Murree Ahmed Hassan Ranjha said that the snowfall season has started in Murree. He said that only 8,000 vehicles of tourists will be allowed to enter Murree per day as part of safety measures.

He said that the snow removal machinery and additional staff had been deployed at snowfall points in Murree. Additional personnel of NHA, tourism police, district police and traffic police have also been deployed, he said adding that special instructions have been issued to those entering Murree to follow the advisory.

Ahmed Hassan said that discussions were under way with local hotel owners to implement a uniform system for hotel rents.

He said that seeing the interest of tourists in Murree, extraordinary arrangements have been made which are being supervised by the Punjab chief minister himself. He said that to deal with any emergency, the district administration has the support of Pakistan army, Rescue 1122, the Civil Defence and other agencies.

After a year has passed since the Murree tragedy, encroachments, tree-cutting, lack of parking and other issues continue to persist.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2023.