As Kashmir’s tourist taxi drivers feel the loan pinch; J&K govt, banks urged for help

By: Zoya Majeed – Ziraat Times

Srinagar: Just a few weeks ago, Nazir Ahmad, a 36-year-old taxi driver from Srinagar, was earning a modest but steady livelihood, ferrying tourists from Srinagar to Pahalgam. Today, he spends most of his day waiting outside a taxi stand, staring at a mobile phone that hasn’t rung rarely in days. “It’s over for this year,” he says, hopelessly. “After the Pahalgam attack, no one is coming.”

The terror attack in Pahalgam in June 2025 has sent shockwaves through Kashmir’s fragile tourism economy. While hotels, houseboats and guides have all seen bookings dip, it is the private taxi drivers and transporters, arguably the backbone of Kashmir’s tourism mobility, who have taken the hardest hit.

These drivers, most of them from lower-middle-class families, had taken bank loans — many through J&K Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), and HDFC Bank — to buy vehicles customized for tourist transport. Vehicles now parked idle for most of the time, collecting dust, while bank EMIs continue to loom over their heads.

According to estimates from local taxi unions in Anantnag, Ganderbal and Baramulla districts, hundreds of taxi owners now have little or no income to repay their monthly EMIs. The situation is especially dire in areas like Pahalgam, Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, where tourism accounts for more than 70% of the transport sector’s income during the summer months.

“This was supposed to be the peak season,” says Shakeel Wani, a local taxi driver in Pahalgam. “Many drivers had recently bought new Innovas and SUVs, expecting a good summer. Now they don’t even have money for fuel.”

The EMI burden

Drivers would soon struggle to make monthly repayments, which range between ₹12,000 and ₹20,000 depending on the vehicle and loan tenure. With no grace period or deferment currently in place, defaulting on EMIs is becoming inevitable.

“There is no business, no earnings, but the banks would soon want their monthly payments,” says Parvaiz Lone, a taxi driver who took a loan from PNB last year. “We are not refusing to pay, we just want time.”

According to Livemint, up to 90% of travel bookings were scrapped, with 13 lakh cancellations recorded across the valley from April to August 2025.

As per data collected by Ziraat Times, before the Pahalgam attack, up to 4,000 taxis crossed tolls to tourist resorts daily, ferrying visitors across the valley. Post-attack, commercial taxi activity has come down considerably.

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has sounded the alarm, pressing J&K Bank for relief. While the bank has pledged to formulate a response, concrete measures like EMI moratoriums or loan restructuring remain undefined as of May 21, 2025. The J&K government, alongside banks such as SBI, PNB, and HDFC Bank, faces mounting pressure to act.

“What is needed for this sector is a temporary suspension of EMI payments to offer some breathing room. It would be good if the banks could extend repayment periods or lower interest rates to ease monthly burdens”, said Shahid Kamili, president of Federation Chamber of Industries, Kashmir.

Javed Ahmed Tenga, president of KCCI agrees, “Most of these drivers have no alternate source of income. Most have families to support, elderly parents to look after and school-going children. A loss of vehicle due to loan default could permanently drive them into poverty. So, such measures are vital to prevent a wave of defaults and preserve livelihoods until tourism rebounds. Government could even offer limited debt forgiveness for the hardest-hit individuals”.

As autumn approaches and hopes dim for any late-season revival, Kashmir’s private transporters stare at a long, uncertain winter. It is now upon the J&K administration and the banking sector to show flexibility and compassion.