Himachal clears 52 industrial units

With a proposed investment of Rs 1,208 crore, the Himachal Pradesh government has cleared 52 more industrial units in the state.

This decision was taken by the single window clearance meeting which met here over the weekend under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and other top officials. However, more details about these cleared units were not provided.

"Ever since the tax concessions were announced by the Centre in early 2003, Himachal has so far succeeded in attracting 7,181 large, medium and small units with an investment of Rs 18,278 crore from all over the country including multi-nationals," said Singh.

Once established, these units would provide employment to over 2,50,000 people, as the investors are bound by law to provide seventy per cent of jobs to locals.

"The pollution-free climate of the hill state was most conducive for information technology and biotechnology entrepreneurs who were already heading for the state in large numbers," he said.

"The state had enough power to ensure no interruption in industrial units in the state. Once completely tapped, these units will prepare the state to meet its power needs for the next century," Singh assured investors.

He said the state government had constituted the state-level single window clearance and monitoring authority under the chairmanship of the chief minister to clear all industrial proposals without delay.

"Rs 23.76 crore had been earmarked for infrastructure development in all the industrial areas of the state. Rs 25 crore had so far been spent by the state government on infrastructure building in the industrial clusters of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh-Parwanoo, Kala Amb," he added.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh further said 112 bighas of land had been identified for setting up of inland container depot at Barotiwala.