Travel & Tourism

Birat Anupam

Ilam has become the first district to offer a skywalk facility for adventure seekers in the country. 
The facility, at Suryodaya Rural Municipality-7 Kanyam, was inaugurated on Friday.

It allows visitors in this popular tourist hub to walk over the 60-feet glass bridge, offering 360-degree views of beautiful surroundings, including the tea garden and mountain.

It has been developed by Kanyam Cloud Pvt Ltd, which has all-women investors.
Twelve women investors from Wonders Nepal have teamed up to do this pioneering tourism project near the Mechi highway.

According to the project director Rita Acharya, the infrastructure, including swings, hotels, is built at a cost Rs50 million.

The inauguration ceremony was held in the presence of Mayor of Suryodaya Rural Municipality, Rana Bahadur Rai, actor Barsha Raut, Singer Alina Chauhan, and many tourism figures from Province 1.

Visitors walking on the glass on the topmost section of the three-section bridge can capture views of both Nepal and the bordering Indian towns of Darjeeling and scenes from the Himalayas to the plains in the south. Ilam's green-carpeted tea garden is an additional and constant attraction for the viewers.

The project is expected to add Kanyam as a new adventure tourist destination and thereby increase the number of tourists to the town, he said. 

The four-metre wide and seven-metre long glass platform on the bridge gives a thrilling experience, said Basudev Baral, a tourism entrepreneur from Dharan, who was in the inauguration ceremony.

''For adventure lovers visiting Ilam, this will be an instant attraction,'' remarked Baral. He said the project is a beautiful example of women-led tourism investment.

Tickets are priced at Rs500, Rs800 and Rs2,000 for domestic tourists, Saarc nationals and tourists from other nations, respectively. - RSS