No signboards to guide tourists to hill stations

The lack of sufficient number of signboards providing directions to various hill tourism destinations in the district is posing much trouble to tourists. Though one can spot several of them within the city, there are hardly any outside the city limits.

The Thusharagiri waterfalls, one of the most prominent hill tourism destinations in the district, is a prime example. Travellers will have to stop and ask for directions at several points after Kodenchery if the driver is unfamiliar with the route. Same is the case with Peruvannamoozhi.

“The distance between Kozhikode and Thusharagiri is around 50 km, but the signboards are less than 10. The main hurdle is that they are hardly visible at most confusing junctions,” said Rajeesh Mathew, who visited the spot from Malappuram with his friends on Friday.

Though domestic tourists, especially inter-district travellers, manage to find the route on their own, tourists from other States are the worst hit. “Till Kodenchery, I managed to use the GPS on my mobile to track the route, but weak signals made the journey a bit tough. In some of the interior junctions, there were not even people around to guide us,” said Kumaresan, a tourist from Tamil Nadu who recently visited the spot with family.

“Though it is the responsibility of the Tourism and Public Works Department (PWD) to erect sufficient number of signboards, some private institutions here have come forward to help travellers,” Joseph K.V. from Pulloorampara said. However, most of the small boards they had set up were not visible enough, he added.

When contacted, the local panchayat authorities said there were enough signboards on the way, but some of them were damaged over the years. “We will certainly take up the matter with the Tourism and PWD,” they added.