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International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 2016, 5(1): 18-34 27
tourist season (Redecon, 2005). The average 5. Community Benefit Tourism Initiative
daily traffic volume is 7562 vehicles, which is Model
equivalent to 11240 PCUs, with 99 percent of
these vehicles being fast moving vehicles. The First and foremost, the need of the area is to
problem of congestion is compounded by the have a coordinating agency that acts as a plat-
lack of parking facilities in the town. Both sides form for synergizing the activities of firms in
of the main road are being used for idle parking, different sectors as well as different govern-
reducing the available road width. The Mall ment agencies. Though the Manali Development
experiences the highest parking accumulation Council was set up in 2004 with powers to raise
with about 700 to 800 vehicles parked on the money through entry tax, the Council has
road every day. With such a large floating remained a dormant agency concerned with
population, the pedestrian movement also generating money without any dedicated staff
becomes a problem due to the lack of road and a whole time head. As a result, even though
space. the agency has been able to collect more than
US $9.5 million (as of end June 2014), it has not
4.4 Political taken up any major development project in the
area so far. It has representatives from different
There are problems of compliance in environ- segments (local industry, transport associa-
mental law and the tourist trade act. On tions, representatives of the local community,
average, 60 cases of violations of the tourist and government officials) as its members, who
trade act are detected by the local authorities could become a big force to mobilize support
every year. There is no local environmental and ideas. Only recently has the Council held
NGO working in the area currently even though some meetings with the stakeholders to
some Delhi-based NGOs have visited and consider new projects like construction of a bus
studied the area many times. There is no local stand and a multistoried marketing complex
water pollution and waste policy nor has use of with a car parking facility and a cultural theatre.
the tourism related master plan ever been The Council could potentially become a Commu-
thought of. While a master plan was prepared nity Benefit Tourism Initiative for the Manali
by Town and Country Planning in 1971, it has area. Since the concerns to be addressed are
never been adhered to strictly, as many struc- multi-dimensional, a triple SSS model of sus-
tures have come up in the area earmarked for tainable development with public-private
common facilities. No sustainable tourism partnership (Figure 4) is proposed.
master plan has ever been prepared, and the
tourism department has hired consultants to The strategy for implementation has to rely on
develop plans for development of certain tourist consultation; coordination and information
facilities only. exchange; capacity building; evaluation and
monitoring; and transparency. One of the basic
From the analysis above, it is clear that in order reasons for leakage of income and employment
to make tourism in Manali sustainable, inter- opportunities is a lack of coordination among
ventions have to focus on infrastructure the SMEs and a lack of skills among the locals.
upgrades (roads, parking, water supply, sani- Similarly, the infrastructural bottlenecks also
tation, sewage, etc.), coordination among SMEs arise because of a lack of coordination among
and stakeholders, community concerns in the development agencies and a lack of
development, skill development, solid waste consultation with the experts in different areas.
management, and regulation. As government The Council has to undertake monitoring and
resources may be insufficient to cater to this evaluation projects to identify the problems and
requirement, it is appropriate to follow the effective interventions. Besides, the working of
public-private partnership mode. the Council has to be transparent with free flow
of information to all the stakeholders. How all
this could be implemented is discussed below.
Science Target Inc. www.sciencetarget.com