Royal Springs Golf Club. KO Photo by Auqib Javeed.
“In the last twelve years, the club has spent Rs. 8874.66 lakhs as expenditure and earned only Rs. 1321.83 lakhs in return,” the data revealed.
Srinagar- Kashmir’s well-known Royal Springs Golf Course (RSGC) is running in huge loss despite government grants supporting its expenditure.
As per the data provided by the Public Relation Officer (PIO) of RSGC, Srinagar, through a Right to Information (RTI) filed by Srinagar-based lawyer, Badrul Duja, the club hasn’t earned any profit since 2010.
“In the last twelve years the club has spent Rs. 8874.66 lakhs as expenditure and earned only Rs. 1321.83 lakhs in return,” the data revealed.
The RSGC is a decorated golf course on the foothills of Zabarwan in Srinagar.
To apply for the membership, a non-government employee has to pay an amount of Rs. 7 lakh as one time membership fee and Rs. 600 as monthly subscription. While a government employee has to pay just Rs. 2 lakh for the membership and Rs. 1200 as monthly subscription.
Currently, the club has over 700 member subscription, majority of them are from the government sector.
In the year 2010-2011, the data reveals, the club only earned Rs. 64.35 lakhs against the expenditure of Rs. 620.33 lakhs.
During 2011-12, against the expenditure of Rs. 545.82 lakh, the club could only earn Rs. 69.37 lakhs.
In 2012-13, the club earned Rs 109.44 against a spent amount of Rs. 576.47 lakhs.
Similarly, the club during the year 2013-14 clocked the earnings of Rs. 110.54 lakhs against the spent amount of Rs 699.18 lakhs.
In 2018-19, the club had spent Rs 1090.66 lakhs as expenditure, however only Rs 125.95 lakhs were realized. While in 2021-22, the club spent Rs 1027.14 lakhs and earned only Rs. 151.06 lakhs in return.
Javed Bakshi, Secretary RSGC, told Kashmir Observer, that the club mostly runs on the grants provided by the government for attracting tourists.
“There are a number of interventions to maintain the club and every intervention is being executed and consulted with the experts,” Bakshi said.
“The club is a huge, vast, expensive asset to maintain. We have special machines for maintaining different level of grass. Also, to generate the revenue, We are also auctioning fruit of thousands of tress in the 2600 kanals of the golf course at the end of the year.”
The club has recruited over 160 staff members to maintain the golf course. They have also hired a number of laborers.
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