Continuing its publicity campaign to attract tourists from the neighbouring state Punjab, Directorate of Tourism, Jammu Saturday organized an impressive Road Show at Jallandhar.The Road show at Jallandhar was part of series of such campaigns organized by the Tourist department with a view to promote Patnitop Circuit as an independent tourist destination and to woo tourists from Punjab.During the road show, Director Tourism, Jammu Mr. R.K.Varma led a delegation of Tour and Travel Operators and other stakeholders from Patnitop, Katra, Bhaderwah and Jammu to showcase various destinations of Jammu region in general and Patnitop and its adjoining areas in particular. Patnitop, a most popular hill resort of Jammu region situated at 2024 meters above sea level is 112 Km from Jammu and 87 Km from Katra. It is perched on a beautiful plateau across which the Jammu-Srinagar Highway passes. It comprises of several meadows and thick forests of Deodar and Kail trees. From here, one can also visit the Dam site of the Baglihar Hydro-Electric project which is about 10 kms from Patnitop. For the facility of tourists at Patnitop, good quality accommodation in hotels, guest houses, J&K Tourism Development Corporation’s luxury huts is available.
From here Tourists can also visit to Bhaderwah Valley known as mini Kashmir, which is about 100 Kms from Patnitop . Bhaderwah offers to the tourists a variety of beautiful landscapes, colourful local fairs and joyous festival moods. Chinta Valley, Jai Valley, Meadows of Seoj and Kailash Kund are the places which one must not miss. Besides this, places of interest like Shahadra Sharief, Mangla Mata, Mangla Devi, Nangali Sahib, Budha Amarnath, Tata Pani in Poonch and Rajouri Districts are worth seeing.The other places of tourist interest are Sanasar which is 18 Kms from Patnitop.Sanasar is endowed with beautiful lake, deodar trees and 9-hole Golf Course situated at an altitude of 2064 meters. Sanasar is famous for adventure activities like Paragliding, trekking, skiing, zorbing etc. Other places of tourist interest near Patnitop is Sudh-Mahadev where highly revered Shiva temple is located at a distance of 43 Kms from Patnitop. The legend has it that after bathing at a spring called Gouri Kund, just short of Sudh Mahadev, the Goddess Parvati would worship the Shivling here that is believed to be at least 3000 years old. A few Kms further ahead of Sudh Mahadev is Mantalai where one can visit a complex created by Late Swami Dhirendra Brahamchari. The State Government has now planned to develop Manatali into an “International Yoga Centre”.
In Jammu, heritage monuments like Mubarak Mandi, Amar Mahal, Dogra Art Gallery, Bag-e-Bahu, Raghunath temple, Raghunath Heritage Bazaar, Golf Course at Sidhra, Jammu are the places worth seeing. The delegation led by Director Tourism, Jammu had an extensive interaction with the Tour and Travel Operators from Ludhiana and offered attractive packages for the tourists visiting Patnitop, Katra, Bhaderwah and Jammu.This was the third road show in the series of road shows planned for major cities of Punjab. Earlier a road show was held at Chandigarh on 6th June, 2015 and at Jallandhar on 19th June, 2015.Next road show will be held at Amritsar on 27th June, 2015.