Raghavendra, PTI, India

    Pilgrims to holy Mt. Kailash and Mansarovar Lake can look forward to better amenities under a plan to be implemented by authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China.

    Acknowledging that the infrastructure at Kailash and Mansarovar was "backward", a senior official of the Tourism Bureau of the TAR said the authorities in Ngari prefecture in western Tibet plan to provide better facilities for pilgrims visiting the two holy places.

    "Pilgrims have contributed a lot to the development of the prefecture. In the present situation, the infrastructure conditions are backward," Thondrup, Director of the Tourism Bureau of TAR, told a group of visiting Indian journalists. "The pilgrims from India visit the holy mountains and lake annually. Now, it is a question of development of these places."

    Around 500 pilgrims visiting Lailash, located in the Purang County adjoining India and Nepal, and Manasarovar Lake. Kailash, the source of the Ganges, Indus and Yarlung Tsangbu rivers, is also visited by pilgrims from China and Nepal.

    Thondrup said authorities were paying attention to improving the infrastructure in the Ngari prefecture to attract foreign tourists.

    An airport was also planned to be built, he said, adding it would be done "quickly".

    "Preparatory work" was being done and a survey carried out for better infrastructural facilities in the Ngari prefecture, he said.

    Asked about opening the route from the Ladakh side to facilitate easy accesses to Lailash and Manasarovar, he said it was an issue which the Indian and Chinese sides had to decide at a higher level. Thoudrup said a delegation from Nepal would visit Lhasa next month to hold discussions for tourism cooperation.