The Karnataka government has recently expressed interest in purchasing land in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in order to build a luxury hotel in the Kashmir Valley. The proposed plan is to buy the land and hand it over to the Karnataka state tourism development corporation.
The development comes days after the government, in a historic move, revoked Article 370, which grants special status to J&K.
KSTDC, a state-owned body, handles the maintenance of tourist locations in the state and also owns hotels and resorts at major locations.
"We'll soon place a proposal before the cabinet and get its approval before writing to the Centre and J&K governor seeking permission to invest there," CT Ravi, Karnataka's tourism minister told Times of India.
Other BJP governed states have also showed interest in buying property in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier this month, the Maharashtra government said that it will buy lands for the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) to set up two resorts, one in Leh, Ladakh and another one in Pahalgam. According to reports, the resorts will be useful for pilgrims going to Amarnath and Vaishno Devi temples.
The Devendra Fadnavis-led government said that Rs 1 crore has been allocated for the building of each resort and the inspection and search for land will begin in the third week of September.
