ZT TEAM REPORT
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir administration has initiated a move to “examine a proposal” for outsourcing of Pahalgam Club and Convention Centre in Kashmir to a private party. The club is presently managed by Jammu Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation.
According to highly-placed sources, the administration has prepared an inventory of some of the high-value tourist assets of the Tourism Department and Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation for transfer to private parties in an open bidding process. And Pahalgam Club is said to be among the first to be transferred to a prospective private player with business interests outside of Jammu & Kashmir.
According to a government order dated 19 August, 2020, a copy of which is with Ziraat Times, Financial Commissioner, J&K, Dr Arun Mehta, has nominated Director General Audit and Inspection, Fayaz Ahmed Lone, as a member of the committee that will examine the proposal about the outsourcing of the Pahalgam Club and Convention Centre.
Pahalgam club was originally established in 1960s during the then Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad’s time. The club was badly damaged in a fire incident in 2005, after which it was rebuilt and reopened in 2015. Former Chief Minister of J&K, Late Mufti Muhammad Syed, who personally monitored the new construction, is said to have initiated the expansion and rebuilding of the new club.
The club, which mainly comprises of 21 luxury suits, has a banquet hall, a multi-cuisine restaurant, a coffee shop, a four-lane bowling alley, swimming pools, separate gym for ladies and gents, a beauty parlor, a library cum reading room, and a showroom of Kashmiri artifacts and shawls.
It also has a auditorium which can be used as a theater depending on the requirement. All rooms face the river Lidder.