Kuldeep Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Shimla, December 31
Tens of thousands of holidaymakers on Monday gathered in the capital city to bid goodbye to 2018.
The tourists are being greeted with the national song Vande Mataram and dos and dont’s. The authorities have installed speakers at various spots for the purpose. The Tourism Department has also erected welcome banners on The Mall and The Ridge.
With the possibility of snowfall on New Year’s eve and later, a large number of tourists today made a beeline for these stations. Long traffic jams were witnessed on the Tara Devi-Cart road and the Sanjauli-Kufri-Fagu road, causing inconvenience to the locals and office-goers.
Pubs, restaurants and hotels in the capital city are packed to capacity. “There are no music concerts or orchestra shows this time as it used to be the case earlier,” recalled Pranav and Arjun, who have come from Delhi to celebrate New Year here hoping for snowfall. The new parking complex near the ISBT has also been opened. The administration has installed a screen informing tourists about the availability of parking in the city. However, the authorities have not opened restricted roads to accommodate tourist rush this time.
Harman Kukreja, former president of the Shimla Hotels’ and Restaurants’ Association, said the tourist rush was this year low as compared to the last year. He attributed it to the bad condition of highways and the lack of snow.
Meanwhile, the city today recorded the minimum temperature of 5.6°C and the maximum of 14.4°C, thus making it a warmer day. Keylong was the coldest at -5.0°C while Kalpa recorded -1.4°C and Manali -0.6°C.
Director, Met centre, Shimla, Manmohan Singh said in view of the present Western Disturbance, isolated light precipitation was likely to take place in the higher reaches of the state in the next 24 hours. It would be followed by another Western Disturbance that might result in scattered to fairly widespread precipitation on January 1 and 2.
CM interacts with tourists
Kasauli hoteliers gear up
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