Postal Rest Houses Booked Till December

The rest houses of Pakistan Post, opened by the government for general public across the country earlier this year, were high in demand and witnessing jammed packed booking schedule till December

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Nov, 2019 ) :The rest houses of Pakistan Post, opened by the government for general public across the country earlier this year, were high in demand and witnessing jammed packed booking schedule till December.

Due to affordable rates and improved facilities for tourists, these rest houses witnessed 100 percent booking since their renovation and start-up with 90 percent advance bookings, said an official source in Pakistan Post here Tuesday.

The strategy, adopted by Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Seed, which was in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision to ensure better utilization of state buildings and promote tourism in the country, had worked as hundreds of thousands of rupees have been deposited in the national exchequer earned through the rented rest houses since their inception, he added.

The official said that rest houses from just two stations of Murree and Rawalpindi had generated income of Rs 20,79,400 during the month of August this year alone.

Opened for general public as affordable renting facility since May 25 this year, these rest houses were pulling the tourists in bulk from across the country as they were available at affordable prices with easy booking procedure.

With these initiative official expenditures on the government rest houses has come to an end as the facilities had started generating income.

He said a number of tourists had preferred to stay in government rest houses instead of hiring rooms in costly hotels.

The citizens had widely hailed the initiative of opening rest houses by the Ministry of Postal Services.

Under the initiative, the citizens could stay at the rest houses along with their families at reasonable charges from Rs 1,200 to Rs 3,000 per day.

Welcoming the initiative, a tourist Jawad Ali said the facility should be on permanent basis and asked to launch a special drive by the government to inform the public about the availability of government rest houses at nominal rates.

On May 18, the Pakistan Post had announced to open its 41 rest houses, located at scenic locations, for domestic and foreign tourists at remarkably low prices.

The postal rest houses had been divided into three categories.

Rs 3,000 per day are charged under the category 'A' rest houses located in Karachi, Multan, Jhelum, Mianwali, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Nathia Gali, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shadman Lahore, Lahore Cantt, Sialkot General Post Office (GPO), Sialkot Cantt, Faislabad GPO and Quetta.

Similarly, the per day rent of category 'B' rest houses in Attock, Murree GPO, Gujrat, Sargodha, Layyah, Chitral, Abbottabad, Ayubia, Kohat, D I Khan, Mirpurkhas, Sorab, Amri, Taftan, Qallat, Muzzaffarbad, Mirpur, Kotli, Gilgit, Sust and Skardu is Rs 2,200.

Likewise, for rest houses in Pindi Point Murree, Saidu Sharif, Bannu, Ziarat and Sialkot Cantt, which fell in category 'C', per day rent of Rs 1,200 has been fixed.