The Himachal government’s decision to ban on the movement of vehicles registered outside the state moving towards Rohtang Pass has not been favored by the travellers across India and those who come from abroad also. However, The taxi union in Manali, has welcomed the decision.
The Himachal Pradesh government's decision is based on the reasons to save Rohtang Pass from Ecological Disaster, Traffic problem and it would also make a big difference in the livelihood of locals.
While the taxi drivers have welcomed the move sensing good business opportunity, hoteliers are opposing it, fearing low occupancy in future in the wake of the decision.
One side the local Manali Taxi Union is happy and welcoming the state govt. decision as The Himachal Taxi Operators Union has a fleet of 1,700 cabs where as daily movement of outside vehicles is around 3,000-4,000 which carries around 20,000 tourists head for Rohtang pass.
As it is already widely spread that the Local Taxi Union charges the high fare as they pleased.
Otherside, the local hoteliers are worried much and held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue and asked the government to withdraw its decision at the earliest.
Some tourists from neighbouring state Punjab have put up the questiong that, “What if the Punjab government imposes a similar ban on vehicles from Himachal Pradesh".
Kullu SP Abhishek Dular said given the traffic congestion at Kothi, movement of non-Himachali vehicles would be restricted beyond Manali town and to keep an eye on the vehicles, posts have been installed at three places.
As mentioned above that there are only approx. 1700 local taxis are available in Manali but the outside vehicle arrivals are more than 3500 daily, the question arrising here that how the local authorities going to cope up with increase in demand for more taxis.. What kind of norms the local authorities will impliment on the local taxi unions not to charge accesive fares or to avoid any exploitation of tourists.
If we see from Ecological terms, decision might be right but from the tourist incoming may decrease to Manali as the main purpose of tourists is to visit Rohtang pass..
Hopefully, State Govt. of Himachal Pradesh will be able to bring some solution at the earliest to cope up this situation.
