Srinagar 8th of September : Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday flagged off an Shikara gathering in Srinagar in order to revive the long-standing water transportation system to the north Kashmir Ganderbal district.Sinha was the first to flag off the Shikara rally from Zero Bridge in Srinagar city to Ganderbal in Ganderbal.
The event coincides with the Urs of Syed Qamar-uddin Bukhari being celebrated in Ganderbal town following 33 years.
The Shikara rally features a cultural contingents including the famous local pop stars, Abdul Rashid Hafiz and Gulzar Ahmad Ganai.
The singers will be celebrating the renewal of each year’s Urs of the Sufi saint, as well as the old water transportation route that ran from Srinagar city to Ganderbal.
In the past the past, hundreds of houseboats carried well-off families of Srinagar to Ganderbal to attend the Sufi saint’s Urs.
The houseboats would be moored for days on the banks of the Sindh Stream that flows through the middle of Ganderbal town.
Alongside the Urs celebrations visitors and dignitaries outside J&K could also stay in the houseboats over weeks in order to take advantage of the warm climate of the river and the calming shade of the Chinar trees that grow along the banks of the Sindh stream in Ganderbal.
Before 1947, the only annual visitor, who arrived with an entourage of houseboats to Ganderbal was the Maharaja of Patiala famous for his herd of pet dogs who were with him during his Ganderbal houseboat cruise.
Darakshan Andrabi, chairperson of the Wakf board, and Nuzhat Ishfaq the chairperson of District Development Committee (DDC) Ganderbal and other dignitaries were in attendance at the ceremony of flag-off.
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