LADAKH NO MORE TOUGH FOR PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED TOURISTS

Leh, August 11, 2010 “Himalaya on Wheels” is perhaps a novel concept in Tourism in the country that the Tourism and Culture Minister Rigzin Jora has launched in Leh recently. The concept is made keeping in mind the disabled tourists who too wish to visit places like Ladakh.

Ladakh being a mountainous region the tourist’s spots are located on hills that demands lot of walking which for the physically challenged gets quite tough to access. But under Himalaya on Wheels the disabled people right activists of Leh are starting to organize specific tour for disabled tourists.

Tourists with physical challenged visiting Ladakh, where most of the tourists spots are located on hill and needed to walk, can avail better accessibility here as disabled people right activists of Leh are starting to organize specific tour for disabled people under Himalaya on Wheels. “To convert the existing tourist’s spots accessible and disabled friendly, PAGIR has been approaching the owners of the tourist’s spots, hotels and guest houses since last two months requesting them to build ramps and make wide doors etc. The responses that we are getting are overwhelming,” told Kunzang Dolma, General Secretary of PAGIR, a Leh based NGO formed by physically challenged people who has initiated it in collaboration with Travel Another India Group.

Kunzang added that the main objective is to provide equal opportunities to the disable people willing to visit Ladakh because normally they cannot not tour here due to hilly and difficult terrain. “Also, it is to create a source of income generation for the disabled people of Ladakh”, she said.