Bhaderwah Development Authority

Vision of the BDA :-

To put Bhaderwah on the tourist map of J&K through the development of road infrastructure connecting it to Pathankot, the Kashmir Valley and Himachal Pradesh.
Provide necessary tourist infrastructure for selling it as cultural, scenic and adventure tourist destination through Eco-Friendly sustainble development of the whole region ensuring environmental conservation so that the  tourism acts as a trigger for the economic development of the region through multiplier effect.

Mission of the BDA:-

Sustainable economic development of Bhaderwah by making it an attractive tourist destination for regional, interstate and global tourism.
Regional tourism development planning to exploit the potential of Bhaderwah as transition between Kashmir Valley, Pathankot and Himachal Pradesh.
Socio-Economic Development, Private sector partnership by expanding the economic space in which people can exercise their initiative to explore oppourtunities for capitalising their potential. Develop some villages as Eco-tourism villages.
Increasing employment oppourtinities.
Develop domestic housing system into home stays, Pilgrim tourism for budget category.
Develop integrated Pilgrimage centres 
Increase Bhaderwah's Share in the State, National and Global tourism.

Strategy

Use the potential of Bhaderwah as an intermediate tourist destination between Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir Valley and Punjab for the economic development of the region Integrated tourism development in the region to attract the tourists visiting Himachal to visit the Kashmir Valley through Bhaderwah and similarly attract the tourists visiting Kashmir valley via an alternate route from Pathankot-Basoli-Sarthal-Bhaderwah -Kishtwar-Daksum-Anantnag.  Sell Bhaderwah as unexplored destination with rich religious and cultural heritage. Stretch the spatial dimension of the tourism towards the East of NH-IA and sell it as a region of adventure tourism potential. Create synergies between road infrastructure development between habitable villages and tourism development through integrated packages with Katra-Jammu and Srinagar. Divert the Pilgrim tourist visiting Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji Shrine and the Holy Shrime of Shri Amarnath. Strengthen and widen the pligrimages to Machail, Kailash Kund and Mani Mahesh and Bhadarwah to act as cetrifugal force for all pilgriamge activities.    

Most probable spots in the Bhaderwah region that can be included in the list are:

Seoj & Kailash
Jai valley-sabardhar
Sonbain-Guldanda-Chatergala
Padri Gali-Bhal Padri
Bhaderwah town & periphery

This package can be introduced to trekkers as the Favourite trekking circuit in Northern India. Extend this list to include Leh, Sheshnag, Marwah & Warwan valleys endowed with pristine beauties in the mountains of greater Himalayas. Advocacy for stretching the tourism towards far East in the region from NH1A Provide diverse adventure and amusement facilities in the circuit Facilitate participation of the people of the region in Pligrim tourism development of the region & as a tourist destination

Regional Setting

Bhaderwah borders Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh and Udhampur & Kathua districts of Jammu province. It borders Kishtwar and Doda tehsils of Doda district. One of advantages which has generally been ignored in planning and development of Bhaderwah and Kishtwar in the region is its proximity to the Kashmir Valley. Kishtwar is already connected to Daksum through the road which runs through the Sinthan top and the road remains open for 6-8 months a year. There are possibilities of connecting Kishtwar to Daksum via Garol and Vailu which will reduce travel time from Bhaderwah to the Valley drastically. This will also open up the possibility of connecting the landlocked regions of Wadhwan and Marwah to Doda district, albeit through the Kashmir valley. This advantage of Bhaderwah because of its regional setting at the cross-roads of the most potential regions - the Kashmir Valley - Himachal Pradesh & Pathankot - remains unexploited. The tourism planning of Bhaderwah till recently has been mainly focused on selling the Bhaderwah region in isolation of its proximity to the Kashmir Valley and Himachal Pradesh. This regional position qualifies Bhaderwah to be developed as a Gate-Way of tourism to Valley(J&K).

The strategy for tourism development

The strategy envisaged by the Local Authority is to desist from large scale investments in tourist infrastructure development at the first stage. This will be achieved by creating minimum requisite & flexible infrastructure to facilitate tourism growth. The Authority will do this infrastructure development underscoring the role of private developers and tourism operators in attracting the tourists in the region. In the second stage the Authority will facilitate further Tourism infrastructure development in the region to cater the needs of academic ,pilgrim, adventure, cultural& conventional tourism, besides advocacy for adequate funding of the road infrastructure products connecting Bhaderwah to the Kashmir Valley in the North and Chamba(H.P) & pathankot in the South. The Authority will sell this as stretching the tourism horizons of J&K corridor towards the East which has remained unexplored. The planning & execution for the second stage tourism infrastructure development will be started in the first phase. The third stage will involve the integration of surrounding villages having tourism potential with the local area by providing all necessary road and tourist infrastructure in these villages. This integration will start with the identification of the satellite tourist villages surrounding Bhaderwah Local Authority, identification of the necessary infrastructure for integration and the provision of this infrastructure. The identification and selection of model tourist villages will start along with phase I and the process of integration of the last village with the tourist potential.

Regional Tourism Development

Although this scale of regional tourism development is different from the scale of tourism development at the local authority level but while planning Bhaderwah the role of regional tourism needs to be underscored. Bhaderwah can get boost in tourism through the development of whole region as tourist circuit. The development of tourist circuit in the region has to be established in two phases One at the region which will connect the tourist spots in Bhaderwah, Kishtwar and Doda Second the scale at the regional level by connecting the primary circuit to Valley Third, connecting the bigger circuit to Punjab and Himachal Pradesh through Bhaderwah-Basohli and Bhaderwah-Chamba road Expansion of this network by incorporating more unexplored spots especially in the Bhaderwah - Kishtwar - Daksum circuit. The role of Local Authority in the regional tourism development is more of advocacy and coordination between different agencies and assessing the economic viability of these projects.The local authority along with other local authorities in the region can set up a conglomerate of local authorities - a non-statutory body for an effective role in the development of the region.

Local Tourism Development

Because of the flexibility of tourism industry unlike agriculture and manufacturing which is location specific it can be an ideal tool for decentralized regional development. In case of Bhaderwah culture, heritage, nature spirituality can be packaged and provide infinite possibilities. The advantages include that the spread effects of tourism are widespread and not concentrated in urban areas. Tourism industry is labor intensive and the multiplier effect of this industry is very high (DPR, 2005). The DPR for the Development of Tourist Circuit in Jammu and Kashmir advocates the development/up-gradation of inter and intra-state connectivity and provision of efficient social and physical infrastructure as focus of development strategy. The main focus of Bhaderwah Development Authority is the development of the local area of the authority with the underlying objectives of the economic development of the authority area. Bhaderwah offers adventure, scenic and cultural tourism potential. The Development Authority envisages developing Bhaderwah as the hub of tourist activity with fixed infrastructure for tourism provided in the town and flexible infrastructure spread over plethora of places surrounding the town.

Pilgrim tourism

Bhaderwah has also become a hub of pilgrimage activity. The festivities start from early spring in April and first center of religious activity is the famous temple of Subernag situated at a height of 10,200 feet in Swardhar Mountains. Devotees of Lord Shiva from the neighboring districts gather to celebrate the occasion and the festivities continue for 2-3 days. This festival is followed by week long celebrations at neighboring majestic peak Roushera. This peak at 11,000 feet from MSL has Roushera Devi temple. The celebrations continue during Navratri period for 9 days and attract tourists from J&K and Himachal Pradesh.