Tourists are ready to pay more to visit such picturesque places in Sikkim

Gangtok, May 30: All roads lead to Changu lake, and so do the air ways.

The main route to the sacred lake at 12,400 ft has been blocked by a landslide, but that has not deterred enthusiastic tourists. If they cannot make it by road, they are doing so by air.

And, they do not seem to mind denting their pockets to reach the popular tourist destination in east Sikkim. Many of the visitors are availing of the flights from Gangtok offered by Sikkim Heli Service.

The main route to Changu, Nathu-la and Baba Mandir through Jawaharlal Nehru Road has remained blocked after heavy rains triggered a landslide near the Shiva mandir at 13th Mile around 10 days ago. The route was temporarily closed for 15 days after the Border Roads Organisation and the army promised to repair the stretch within those days but, natural disaster struck the area once more, damaging the repair works even further.

Tourism, however, has not been hit and the travel agents are laughing all the way to the banks.

Senior officials of the Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation admitted that business through the heli service has improved since the main road to Changu lake and Nathu-la was closed. They said there has been a sharp increase in the bookings of the chopper joyrides over the capital and the mountains and most of the takers are from western India, including Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Others, preferring the road, are taking the alternate 100-km extra long route to Changu lake through R.N. road via Rhenock and Rongli in east Sikkim and are gladly forking out the extra buck for it.

The manager of Norling Travels said tourists were willing to spend extra and drive more than 100 km to visit the lake. ?We get a large number of enquiries every day and most of them make it to Changu despite the fare and the drive,? she said. While it costs only around Rs 150 per head to Changu through the usual route, it is around Rs 450 per head through the alternative route. ?They are, however, rewarded with the breathtaking view along the road through Padamchen, Zuluk and Gnathang,? the manager said.