Himachal's one of the most favourite tourist destinations, Kullu-Manali is ready to welcome tourists after a period of almost two and a half months, since the monsoon rains, floods and landslides wreaked havoc in the district. Thursday was a special day for the people of the area, the first Volvo bus in the last 80 days reached Manali.
MLA, Manali Bhuvneshwar Gaud flagged the Volvo bus from Patlikuhal onwards towards Manali and himself occupied a seat in it. The start of the Volvo services will help in kick-starting the tourism activities in the valley which was adversely hit due to the excessive rains that massively damaged the road connectivity.
DC Kullu, Ashutosh Garg, Project Director, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Varun Chari, Technical Manager NHAI, Aditya Dhar Dwivedi, SDM Manali Raman Sharma, DSP Manali KD Sharma, RM HRTC Kullu and other officials and journalists accompanied Bhuvneshwar Gaud in the Volvo till Manali.
The MLA said that with the restarting of the Volvo bus, better options will be available to the tourists and kindle new hopes for the hotel industry besides revitalizing the tourism sector. He hoped that given the pleasant weather conditions these days and the upcoming winter season, tourists would now head towards Manali.
Expressing gratitude to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu for making extra efforts to get the road connectivity restored. He added that the Chief Minister effectively placed the issue of repair of roads leading to Kullu-Manali before the Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari during his visit to the flood-hit areas and taking up the issue with other Union Ministers as well.
The MLAs also thanked the district administration and the NHAI officials for the early refurbishment of the highway and expressed hope that the road will soon be metalled and will be completed before the Dussehra festival season.