Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 30: In a bid to expand the tourism avenues in the State, the 3rd Mughal Road Car Rally was flagged off by Minister of State for Tourism, Culture and Home, Nasir Aslam Wani from Royal Spring Golf Course, here today.
The Rally began with 93 teams including Kashmir’s first motorsport team, Baba Reshi Lions, vying for top honours.
The three-day mega event, organised by Shimla-based Himalayan Motor Sport Association in coordination with State Tourism Department, was flagged off by Minister of State for Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani from Royal Spring Golf Course along the banks of Dal Lake this morning.
The 600-kilometre long rally passes through the historic Mughal road that was once traversed by the caravans of Mughal emperors to reach Kashmir.
“This is a big step towards promotion of adventure tourism in the state,” Wani said.
He said such events help in exploring untouched areas like Simthan Pass, Peer Ki Gali, Bafliaz and the picturesque medieval Mughal Sarai at Aliabag along the historic Mughal road, a heritage road that connects Kashmir valley with Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu division.
The rally, sponsored by Jammu and Kashmir Bank, also encourages the youth of the State to come forward and participate in adventure tourism, the minister said.
As the minister flagged off the rally, 186 adventure lovers hit the historic road in 93 vehicles including motor cycle riders.
Local outfit Baba Reshi Lions will be competing against some of the top teams of the country — Team Mahindra, Team Maruti and Team TATA — on the mountainous tracks of Pir Panjal range in the western Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We are looking forward to our long term association with the Himalayan Motorsports, which is the organiser of this rally. We hope this would be a start for us,” team owner of Baba Reshi Lions, Sajad Alam, had said.
There are two stages of the rally — transport and competitive stages. The transport stages starts at Srinagar and passes through Pampore-Pulwama-Shopian and Dobjan, while the competitive stage starts through Peer-Ki-Gali and culminate at Bafliaz in Jammu region.
The rally will be held in two separate categories — the Extreme, a fast paced event with professional drivers and the Enduro, a slower event.
The extreme event returns from Bafliaz while Enduro proceeds to Jammu after crossing Mughal road at Bafliaz.
As the rally proved a big success last year, a number of participants came all the way from various parts of the country to take part in the thrilling expedition this year as well, Wani said.
Meanwhile, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pardeep Gupta today flagged in 3rd J&K Bank Mughal road car rally, one of India’s biggest motor sporting events at Hari Niwas here today.
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