Work on Ford's ski village to start by 2007

A merican auto giant Ford is likely to start work on its project of building a Himalayan ski village in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu Valley by early next year. The company bagged the $300 million deal, being described by many as the largest FDI investment in the tourism sector in the country, last week.

"Now that the Himachal Pradesh government has given the tourism-cum-skiing project to us, we will start work on the basic layout so that the construction work can begin by the end of this year or early next year," Ajay Dabra, director of the Himalayan Ski Village, a subsidiary of Ford Auto, said.

"We have hired well-known Colorado-based architect Jack Zehren, who has already visited the proposed site thrice," Dabra said, adding that the look of the resort will blend well with the traditional hill architecture of wood and stone houses with slated roofs. "Building the entire ski project will take around three years," he added.

The Himachal Pradesh state cabinet met on Thursday to sign the implementation agreement (IA) with Himalayan Ski Village for the execution of the $300 million tourism-cum-skiing project. Global tenders were expected for the mammoth project but all were by-passed by the Himachal Pradesh government.

Himalayan Ski Village had carried out a detailed project report of the proposed plan and submitted it to the state government.

The company had expressed its willingness to build the project in the high mountains of Kullu valley, overlooking the popular resort town of Manali.

Alfred Ford, great grandson of the legendary Henry Ford, visited the site late last year. Married to a Bengali, he is said to be involved in the Hare Krishna movement.

"We plan to construct 700 five-star rooms, 300 Swiss villas (called chalets), 2,420 food court-type restaurant seats and a handicraft village. Besides, there will be a base park with the capacity to hold 1,000 vehicles, and a high-tech gondola that will ferry 500 passengers every hour to an altitude of 14,000 feet above sea level," he said.

John Sims, another official of the company, recently told Business Standard, "We plan to build an international resort at over 9,000 ft above sea level. The project will not cause any displacement of people. We aim to hold international ski tournaments as well as the Winter Olympics here."

According to Tarun Sridhar, director, tourism, the firm will buy around 140 hectares from private parties and another 5 hectares (for the ski slopes) from the state government on a 99-year lease basis. "It will be a three-level investment and may touch $300 million, perhaps the largest FDI investment in the tourism sector in India," he said.

The project was embroiled in controversy of late with the Bharatiya Janata Party opposing the project on the grounds that traditional water and forest rights of villagers will be taken away with the coming up of the project.

The BJP also involved the local priests in the Kullu Valley who opposed the project through their predictions but the ruling Congress-led government headed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh dismissed this and supported the project.

The CM was of the view that the project will attract more foreign companies to invest in the state thereby bringing in more revenue.