Shimla: Tourists thronged Shimla to celebrate New Year on the eve of New Year, as over 9445 vehicles entered Shimla till late night. 

The hotels industry got a boost as majority of the hotels were jam-packed.

With the relaxation of curfew during the night-hours the tourists had started trickling in before Christmas.

The huge crowd brought cheers to the people associated with the tourism industry.

According to Shimla police between 8.00 am to 11.00 pm as many as 9445 vehicles entered Shimla, while 6525 left Shimla.

In the last 34 hours 22,910 vehicles reached the city, while  15,966 vehicles left Shimla.

Amid pandemic restrictions, the police were on their toes to ensure that the Covid-19 protocol was dully followed by the locals and the tourist on the eve of New Year celebration.

Shimla Hotel and Resturant Association President Sanjay Sood said that tourists in large numbers reached Shimla for the New Year celebrations as the occupancy in the majority of the hotels in the city were 100 percent.

With large number of tourist crowd on the Ridge and the Mall, Shimla police had a tough time to ensure its strict compliance of the night curfew as soon as the clock struck 10.00 pm.

The state government had however allowed in-house celebration of the New Year past 10.00 pm in the hotels, however under strict compliance of Covid-19 protocol.  

Shimla Additional Superintendent of Police, Praveer Thakur  said, “Everything was peaceful and there were no reports of any  untoward incident.”