After repeated failed attempts to get a gas cylinder, owner of Sauraha Tipilan House, Lal Bahadur Bhatta ended up constructing a smokeless cooking stove on his own as an alternative.More than 12 thousand factories and industries in Chitwan are affected by the current blockade in lack of raw materials and fuel shortage due to the Indian blockade.
Most of the businesses are already closed down and the ones which are in operation are in crisis due to huge debts. Hotelier Shambhu Mali said that he started Hotel Royal Safari with an investment of over Rs 100 million, out of which Rs 40.5 million was loan.
"We have already incurred a loss of around Rs 2 million since the earthquake." Similarly, hotelier Damodar Regmi of Hotel Nature Heritage said that he had taken a loan of Rs 30 million to establish the hotel but the quake and ongoing political crisis has incurred severe loss to the hotel.
"We have to pay a monthly interest of Rs 300 thousand to the bank. Plus, the cost of taking care of elephants and staff is about Rs 200 thousand per month." He said that such conditions would surely lead to closure of all the hotels soon.
Regional Hotel Association representative in Sauraha, Shir Lal Pariyar asserted that the trend of establishing hotels at cost above Rs 100 million had started only a few years ago after peace process opened doors for development in the nation. "Such hotels take up bank loans to ease their heavy investments. The present crisis has put them into a fix on means for paying back loans," Pariyar informed.
On the other hand, 16 tourists who were to reach Chitwan from India cancelled their tour due to lack of international flight, said Anjan Kumar Pandey, owner of Hotel Parkland.
"Tourists canceling travel to Nepal has been increasing day by day. We have suffered around Rs 3 million losses since the earth-quake. With the increasing shortage of fuel, tourists willing to visit the country are being stopped too."
He said that it has become difficult to manage finances to pay their staff due to the debts and loss. September- November is a peak season for international tourism, which has been completely hampered due to the blockade.
Entrepreneurs informed that flow of tourists to Chitwan during the same period last year was very good. "With about 30 star hotels and other accommodations, Chitwan generated around Rs 250- Rs 300 million in revenue daily. However, it has depleted by half by the Indian blockade," said Dilip Mainali, Chair of Chitwan Toursim Development Committee.
They said that Nepal was slowly recovering from the disastrous earth-quakes but gruesome incidents like that of Tikapur incident and the ongoing unrest in the Tarai region and the Indian blockade once again pushed it back to the same state.
Entrepreneurs called on government to take initiatives to end the embargo and for spreading positive message in the global arena about Nepal and its tourism potential.
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