In order to prevent crowding by visitors at tourist destinations and check the resulting Covid-19 threat, the State Government is expected to ask hoteliers to put a cap on the booking in hotels in Nainital and Dehradun districts.
The authorities in Dehradun and Nainital strictly enforced Covid guidelines and other measures to prevent crowding in popular tourist destinations like Mussoorie and Nainital. In Dehradun district, only those tourists with RT-PCR negative test conducted not more than 72 hours earlier and with prior hotel bookings are being allowed to enter Mussoorie, while similar measures have been adopted along with a changed traffic management plan in Nainital.
Talking to The Pioneer, the Nainital district magistrate DhiraajGarbiyal said that though no orders have been received yet to put a cap on the bookings in hotels, considering the recent Uttarakhand High Court directions and the Covid-19 threat, various measures have been taken to prevent crowding in the lake city. Tourists are being allowed to enter only with an RT-PCR negative report. In order to prevent traffic congestion, the authorities have directed tourists to park about 500 four wheelers at Rusi bypass and 200 two-wheelers at Narayannagar and then sent them to Nainital by shuttle service. As a result of this and other steps taken to divert traffic to nearby tourist destinations outside Nainital, the lake city did not witness the congestion seen on the previous weekend.
At the popular tourist destination of Kempty Falls which is located in Tehri district near Mussoorie, the district administration has put a limit of 50 people to visit the spot at a time. The police in Dehradun and Nainital districts are implementing Covid guidelines in popular tourist destinations and issuing challans to those not wearing masks and violating other Covid guidelines.
Following media reports and after photos and videos of tourists crowding popular tourist destinations violating Covid guidelines in hill stations went viral, the Union Government and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed concern about the Covid risk from such behaviour. The Uttarakhand High Court had earlier directed the State to reconsider the weekend relaxation provided to tourists.