Pre-book hotels for New Year bash in hills

DEHRADUN : If you are planning a trip to Nainital or Mussoorie to ring in the New Year, don’t forget to pre-book your hotel room or you may have to return even before reaching your destination.

Vehicles from Uttarakhand and other states make a beeline to the two hill stations around the New Year time, leading to hourslong traffic jams and parking woes. This time, police and the local administration plan to regulate the number of tourists for avoiding traffic chaos during the season.

Nainital has a capacity to park around 2,000 cars while Mussoorie can accommodate around 1500 vehicles, but over 10,000 vehicles reach the two hill towns for New Year celebrations.

“For Nainital, we will allow only those vehicles to proceed to the city who have pre-booked their hotels and parking slots. For Mussoorie, we are yet to take a final decision (about regulating the entry of vehicles) and the focus will be on making the best use of parking spaces,” Kewal Khurana, DIG of the traffic directorate, told HT. After the high court’s order in September, the Nainital administration launched a mobile app in October allowing visitors to pre-book parking space.

Efforts were being made to spread the message of tourist regulation through traffic directorate’s website and social media, Khurana said.

“We will also deploy 10 units of city patrol unit for monitoring traffic flow and checking drink driving in Mussoorie. Around 50 additional cops will man the two hill towns for regulating traffic.” A meeting will take place on December 25 to chalk out a final traffic plan for the New Year, he said. “While we agree with the administration that there’s a need to regulate (the number of tourists visits), these things should have been planned well in advance rather than at the last minute, which will only put tourists coming from different parts of the country to inconvenience,” Hotel and Restaurant Association of Uttarakhand president Sandeep Sahni said.

Nearly 30-40% of tourists make plans at the last minute and they add to walk-in clients for hotels, Sahni said. “Not everybody has a mindset to pre-book in advance. Last year, we had a situation where many people even with confirmed booking were denied entry to Mussoorie.I don’t see anything wrong in their intention but when it comes to implementation, it is done so shoddily that eventually tourists are the ones who end up suffering.”

NAINITAL ADMINISTRATION WILL ALLOW ONLY THOSE VEHICLES TO PROCEED TO CITY WHOSE PASSENGERS HAVE PREBOOKED HOTEL