Tourism policy for north sought

The Himachal Pradesh has stressed the need for a joint strategy for development of tourism in northern hill states on the pattern of North-eastern states and urged the Planning Commission to set apart funds for the purpose.

Remarking that there was vast scope for development of tourism in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttaranchal, Tourism Minister Vijay Singh Mankotia said here yesterday an appropriate strategy should be worked out to use this potential to generate large-scale employment and improve the economy of the region.

He said the state government would invite the chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and Uttaranchal for discussing the broad parameters of the new tourism strategy.

Mankotia urged the central government to reduce the air fare structure for Himachal Pradesh on the lines of North-eastern states. Though the Centre had so far not accepted this demand, he felt that the fares were on the higher side.

Power projects: The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) project engineers have welcomed the the state government's decision to execute the 100 Mw Sainj project in the state sector.

The association of project engineers have urged the government that techno-economically viable projects like Sorang (60 Mw), Budhil (70 Mw) should also be taken up in the state sector.

They also demanded an early resumption of work on the Renuka dam project.