Kolkata: Two months after post-paid mobile and SMS services were resumed in the Valley, bookings for Jammu and Kashmir tour started on Monday. "The famous tourist spots in Jammu and Kashmir are Srinagar, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonmarg, Rajouri and Poonch. Pre-booking for touring these places have already started from today (Monday) as flight rates are comparatively low at present," said Ahsan-ul-Haq, the officer in-charge of the Jammu and Kashmir tourist office in Kolkata. Tour operators hinted that peoples interest and curiosity over visiting the Valley have increased after the lifting of travel restrictions to the state. "This is what we have been waiting for. The situation is normal and people are gearing up to travel there. Now is the time to promote Kashmir. We are receiving calls from customers enquiring about the tour packages and safety conditions in Jammu and Kashmir," said Anil Punjabi, Chairman (Eastern Region) of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI). The mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir were shut down on August 5 after the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution. While Jammu and Kashmir was opened to tourists from October 10, the state administration on August 2 had issued a security advisory asking tourists to leave Kashmir as soon as possible mentioning terror threat in the Valley. "In the first week of December, I am planning to take a small delegation of travel agents to Kashmir and check the ground reality to know the exact situation prevailing there. We will also invite the travel agents there to come to Bengal and decide reasonable tour packages for the tourists. We want Kashmiris to come to Bengal as well," said Punjabi. Mohammad Tanvir, a travel agent in Kolkata, pointed out that the flight rate from Kolkata to Srinagar is now between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000. In October 2018, the flight rate was between Rs 15,000 and 20,000. The lack of mobile connectivity in Kashmir paralysed the tourism industry as visitors who had made bookings earlier could not get in touch with the travel operators and hotels. "Last year, during Durga Puja, around 3,500 tourists went to Jammu and Kashmir. This year, the scenario was totally different due to the 69-day lockdown in the Kashmir Valley. Tourists, who had earlier booked tickets for Jammu and Kashmir during the Durga Puja vacation, cancelled their flights or changed their chosen destinations," said Tanvir.

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