Astore development work carries on as cold weather cuts tourist visits

Development work in Astore is continuing into the cold season even as falling temperatures cut the number of tourists visiting the district, UrduPoint reported.

The outlet said development activity in the valley has not stopped with the change in weather, while tourist arrivals have fallen as the cold sets in.

UrduPoint's report named no schemes, departments, contractors, costs or deadlines. It gave no figures for visitor numbers or for the size of the decline, and quoted no official of the district administration or the tourism department. Skardu Times could not independently verify the details.

Astore is a district in Gilgit-Baltistan's Diamer division, reached by a side road that leaves the Karakoram Highway. As elsewhere in the region, its visitor season runs through the summer months, and arrivals fall away once temperatures drop and high routes and side valleys begin to close.

That leaves guesthouses, jeep operators and small shops in the valley with a short earning window each year, and gives public works a similarly short building season, with work often pushed into autumn before the weather stops it.

Whether any of the work reported has been held up by snow or road conditions, and how far into the winter it is expected to run, was not said. The report also did not indicate whether this year's seasonal fall in visitors is sharper or milder than in previous years.