NB BUREAU
Snow Igloo, claimed as the world’s largest igloo cafe, has finally opened its doors for visitors in Jammu and Kashmir’s famous tourist pace of Gulmarg. The igloo is named as Snoglu.
The cafe’s management—Kolahoi group—said that the concept of a snow cafe is incredibly popular in Switzerland, Finland and Canada and they are trying to replicated the same model in Kashmir division which receives considerable amount of snowfall in the winter months of December to March.
“I thought Gulmarg sees a lot of snow, so why not start this concept here,” Syed Wasim Shah, creator of the igloo said as quoted by the local media.
According to Shah, the igloo has small air pores to maintain the temperature and to prevent it from from becoming intolerably cold.
Shah had built a similar cafe—largest in Asia and his first such attempt in India—last winter. It was 12.5-ft high and 22-ft in diameter and had four tables accommodating up to 16 customers.
This year’s igloo is 38-ft high and 44-ft in diameter and is large enough to accommodate around 40 guests at a time. “According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest cafe so far is in Switzerland, and its height is 33.8 feet and diameter 42.4 feet. So, this is larger than that,” Shah said.
Snoglu is completely made of snow. The artworks include hand-engraved copper samovar to give the cafe a traditional Kashmiri touch. Sheep hides have been placed on the tables and benches made of snow and ice to make the seating arrangements warm and comfortable. The construction of this year’s igloo required 25 members and the entire development took around 2 months.
(With inputs from agencies)
