A day trip to Simly Dam

The last time I visited Simly Dam was probably somewhere in

early August 2003. The bad news is that the place hasn’t changed
much. Simly Dam is about 43 kilometers from where I live
currently i.e. near the Golra Mazar, Islamabad.

Yes, the biggest change that has indeed come is not in the
ambiance or the route to the destination, rather it has come in
my personal life i.e. I had two children then and now Al-
hamdullilah I have three. And I must hasten to add that we do
have ‘Green Star’ offices in the neighborhood. Actually I wanted
to have a daughter and after having this lovely fairy we call
Ayesha, we called it a day!

(On the way to Simly Dam)

This time around I visited the place again in early April 2009 with
the notion that things would have changed and I will probably not
get a good parking place in the vicinity of the dam.

A little bit of background:

The Simly Dam is the largest reservoir of drinking water to people

living in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The water stored in
this dam is fed by the melting snow & natural springs of Muree
hills.
Location:

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The route to the dam is quite boring actually. On the way to
Muree, one passes through the small village of Bara Kahu, a place
which I love to call ‘Twelve Cows’. You need to make a right turn
here and after passing through pot holed roads which could be
quite uncomfortable to you and devastating for your car; you hit
another small village called ‘Phul Garan’ literally meaning ‘Flower
Village’.

Another 10 – 15 kilometers from this village where houses are

cropping up like nobody’s business, you end up at Simly Dam.
Back in the eighties, most of the water supply to Islamabad was
coming from this particular dam. I wonder where the water is
being channelized these days, though.

(The fanatic Shaikh family before the sumptuous biryani feast)

The dam is tucked away in a nice, sleepy area where there are
hardly any passer byes leave aside tourists. It is such a shame
that this place could be developed into such a beautiful little
family picnic abode but probably since it is outside the jurisdiction
of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) limits therefore CDA does not
seem to be interested in developing it.

The children were of course not allowed initially to get into the
water since none of them knew how to swim in the first place. We
took lunch with us and before anything else we all feasted on the

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sumptuous biryani made by my better half. After stuffing our
faces, we headed for the waters and the children enjoyed making
their feet wet.

(The younger Shaikh brats near the water; Mohsin & Ayesha)

Activities:

Boating and Fishing are two main activities here. For fishing, you
need to have license (permission) from CDA (Capital
Development Authority), Islamabad.1

Staying:

There is only one guest house in Simly Dam operated by CDA

(Capital Development Authority), Islamabad. Before you plan to
stay here, you need to have permission to stay & visit this
beautiful guest house from CDA Head Office located in
Islamabad.2

Surroundings:

About 100 meters before the Simly Dam, a road goes directly to
Gulahrra Gali, Patriata. Beside this road, there are small cities like
Crore and Bun operated by MKDA (Muree Kahuta Development

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Authority). After you cross Crore and Bun, you can directly reach
Gulharra Gali, Patriata.3

(The love birds at Simly Dam)

After having lunch and making our feet wet, there was not much
left for us to do since we did not intend to stay here overnight &
thus returned home with sweet memories of the trip probably to
return after two to three years.

References:

1. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simly_Dam

2. ibid.

3. ibid.

Shaikh Muhammed Ali

Project Director (HRD),
Higher Education Commission, Islamabad
E-mail: mashaikh@hec.gov.pk

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