Kolkata flocks to Darjeeling to make up for time lost due to elections
Times of India | 7 June 2024
DARJEELING: The peak tourist season is nearing an end but Darjeeling is still jam-packed with holidayers as many people, a large number of them from Kolkata, deferred their vacation to the hill station till after the elections, which were held in the city on June 1. Though most schools in Kolkata will reopen on Monday, hotels and car rental services in the Hills continue to receive bookings and queries from tourists who plan to visit till the end of the month.
Many, who had gone to Darjeeling without a hotel reservation, had to holiday elsewhere as they could not find any accommodation. Darjeeling Himalayan Railways added a service to cater to the demand.
Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents (DATA) said most hotels were booked till June 20 and that June's footfall in the hill station was the highest post Covid. "We have bookings till June 20. We expect the flow to continue till the end of this month as most visiting the Hills now are those who deferred their visit for elections. Now that the polls are over, they want to visit Darjeeling to escape the heat in Kolkata and south Bengal," said DATA general secretary Pradeep Lama. "Occupancy this year is the highest in five years. Darjeeling is so packed that many have had to return as they couldn't get accommodation."
A hotelier, Samir Singhal, too, said the rush was expected to continue till June-end. "We usually get couples at this time as schools open after the first week of June. We are still getting queries. We are booked for the next two weeks," he said.
Lawyer Kumarjit Das and his wife Ivy Dasgupta, a lecturer, left for Chatakpur near Darjeeling on June 2. "We deferred our visit as we wanted to avoid travel during campaign," said Dasgupta. The couple will return at the end of this week. "The crowd has started thinning and the weather is good."
Govt employee Dibyendu Dutta, a resident of Kankurgachhi, has not been able to manage a ticket. "All trains to NJP are packed till next week. Bus and flight fares show no sign of reducing. I am still trying my best," he said.
The rush has been such that DHR rolled out an additional service from Thursday to June 30 to meet the demand. The extra diesel-driven toy train ride will accommodate 89 more tourists. "Looking at the ever-increasing demand and craze for the mountain railway, we are adding one more joy ride service," said DHR director Arvind Mishra. DHR usually runs 10 16km Darjeeling-Ghum-Darjeeling joy ride services. Of them, four are hauled by steam engines and six by diesel.