Parbat's tourism infrastructure projects delayed due to shortage of engineers

PARBAT, Jan 22:42 tourism infrastructure development plans have been delayed due to a shortage of engineers in Parbat. Forty-two projects with budget allocations for tourism infrastructure to promote the district's tourism sector have been stalled due to a lack of engineers. Even six months into the current fiscal year, none of the projects had been implemented.

Since Shrawan, there has been one unfilled temporary sub-engineer position at the Tourism and Industry Office Parbat. The office has ten staff, eight of whom are currently working. Due to a paucity of technical staff, the construction agreement for the tourism infrastructure development plan for fiscal year 2081/82 BS has not been reached with the user committee, according to the office's information officer Bhim Prasad Aryal.

According to information officer Aryal, the current fiscal year's tourism infrastructure development budget is Rs 32 million. The administration has already contacted all seven municipalities in the district about the tourism infrastructure development plan. Several user construction committees have been formed in villages to help build the plan.

Ashok Kumar Nepali, Chief of Parbat's Tourism and Industry Office, stated that all plans have been stalled owing to a shortage of trained technicians to sign the plan agreement with the consumer committee, develop the cost estimate, measure the plan, and implement it. Despite repeated requests for an engineer or sub-engineer from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism under Gandaki Province, the office says that the position has not yet been filled.

He stated that the difficulty is that the plans that were supposed to be completed during the current fiscal year have yet to be implemented. According to Nepali, a budget of Rs 10.5 million has been set aside for Kushma Municipality, Rs 8 million for Modi, Rs 5 million for Jaljala, Rs 3.5 million for Phalebas, Rs 2 million for Paiyun Rural Municipality, Rs 2 million for Mahashila, and Rs 3.2 million for Bihadi. Since all the plans are short-term, preparations are being made to finish the implementation within the current fiscal year, according to the Office Chief Nepali .

The tourism infrastructure development plan includes 22 plans with budgets of Rs 5 million, 19 with budgets of Rs 1 million, and one with a budget of Rs 2 million. The budget has been set aside to build infrastructure that will draw more devotees and tourists to the district's religious, historical, and tourist attractions. According to Ashok Kumar Nepali, Chief of the Tourism and Industry Office in Parbat, the most projects are in Kushma Municipality with 13, Modi Rural Municipality with nine, Jaljala Rural Municipality with seven, Phalebas Municipality with six, Paiyun Rural Municipality with three, and Bihadi and Mahashila with two each.

The tourism infrastructure includes temple construction, refurbishment, and painting, rest spots, trekking routes, community buildings, gardens and parks, as well as housing renovations. Infrastructure is being built at religious and tourist sites in rural areas with the goal of attracting travelers to Kushma Bazaar, Parbat's district headquarters, which has recently become a hotspot for adventure tourism.

In addition, 62 housing services are in operation in all seven Parbat municipalities. According to the Tourism and Industry Office in Parbat, despite the fact that the district receives hundreds of foreign tourists and a substantial number of local tourists every day during the tourist season, data collection is difficult due to the lack of a tourism information center. According to Office Chief Nepali, the lack of annual statistics on tourists entering the district makes it difficult to formulate new plans.