In order to revive the centuries-old mode of watertransport and to decongest roads in Srinagar city, Kashmir's first bus boatstarted its trial run in the Jhelum River on July 30.
The state of the art bus boat has a seating capacity of35 passengers and 5 crew members.
"The crew includes a driver, and four rescuers.
"The bus boat operates from Pantha Chowk in Srinagar outskirts toQamarwari, on the downstream Jhelum river.
"In order to revive the historical water transport and to decongest theroads in Srinagar city, the bus boat is an ideal option. At present we have six floating docks on Jhelum banks to pick uppassengers and to deboard them", said Imran Malik, director of SukhnaEnterprises, who procured the bus boat for the local tourism department.
"There was a global tender from the J&K tourism developmentcorporation (JKTDC) and we were successful tenderers.
"There are three components to this in this Rs 2 crore project. The busboat which we imported from New Zealand, the rescuer boat which is from Dubaiand the luxury boat which is from the US.
"Six floating docks are from Taiwan".
He said the initiative has been taken under the Prime Minister's developmentalpackage (PMDP) called Swadesh Darshan.
Malik is presently operating the bus boat on a trial basis for the tourismdepartment.
"From tomorrow (Monday) we will start training the staff of the tourismdepartment to operate the bus boat and once trained, the department will operatethe project on its own", he said.
Malik says at least 3 more bus boats will be brought in to run in the Jhelumriver once the idea of water transport picks up with the locals.
"It is an absolutely value addition travel. You reach your destination withoutany hassles, you don't add to air pollution, you save fuel and you also enjoythe beauty of the river and its banks", he said.