SRINAGAR Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that his government endeavours to dispel apprehension in tourists about the situation prevailing in the state and encourages them to visit here from all over the world.
We have succeeded in our efforts to some extent and our work in this direction is continuous, he said adding that the removal of travel advisories by Germany and Japan and now modification in its travel advisory by Britain is highly encouraging and certain to give further boost to tourism in the state. Speaking to media at the sidelines of a function organized to flag off the cycling event Tour-de-India at picturesque Dal Lake shore, here, the Chief Minister said that the government wants to showcase states beauty and potential of sports and adventure tourism in a renewed and befitting perspective.
Omar said that the potential of adventure tourism like skiing, white water rafting, mountain biking, trekking, competitive and recreational cycling etc need to be showcased widely to rope in tourists having interest in these fields. He said various events of adventure and sports tourism are being organized in the state on regular intervals to provide opportunities to the lovers of adventure tourism and sports to visit the state and participate in these events.
Expressing pleasure over the holding of Tour-de-India cycling event in Srinagar, the Chief Minister said that this has placed Jammu and Kashmir on cycling map of the country adding that holding of this event would also attract young generation to participate in cycling competitions and also make cycling a recreational activity.
Flagging off the event, Omar said that cycling is gaining popularity as a sport in the country and from a mere tradition it is fast developing into a sport activity rather than necessity. He hoped that the younger generation in the state will adopt cycling not only for keeping their body fit but also taking part in national and international cycling events.
Omar said that the participation of cyclists from various parts of India and oversees countries is highly encouraging. He asked the organizers to make this landmark event a regular annual feature to make cycling more and more popular among young generation. He said that the participation of cyclists from oversees in the event will develop confidence of situation in them they feel in the state at present and this would in turn results in visit of lovers of beauty and adventure to the state besides conventional tourists.
The Chief Minister expressed the hope that the organizers of the event would also explore possibility of holding multinational cycling event in the state in future.
Speaker Legislative Assembly, Mohammad Akbar Lone, Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports, R. S. Chib, Advisor to the Chief Minister, Mubarak Gul were present on the occasion among others.
Cyclists from India, Thailand, UAE, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ireland and other oversees countries are participating in the event that started at Mumbai some days back, was flagged off from Srinagar today and will move further from Noida UP to other parts of the country in its third leg.
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