LUCKNOW, INDIA, July 14, 2002: The historically rich Garh Mukteshwar may well turn out to be Uttar Pradesh’s “Hardwar,” which it lost to the new state of Uttaranchal, carved out of UP in 2000. Hardwar is one of the foremost pilgrimage destinations of India. The star attraction at both sites is the holy Ganga, which the UP government is all set to cash in on at Garh Mukteshwar in its ongoing drive to lure tourists. Situated 75 km from Ghaziabad, on the Delhi-Moradabad national highway, the Garh Mukteshwar Bridge Ghat has been a pilgrimage site every Kartik Purnima for well over 5,000 years. Today about 200,000 people congregate here on the occasion of the Kartik Purnima Mela. State’s housing secretary, Jai Shankar Mishra, whose department is actively involved in the project says, “Our aim is on a focused development of the area. We have petitioned the Centre for US$10.2 million.”
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