The ambitious 3.75-km ropeway project to link the famous shrines of Naina Devi in Himachal Pradesh and Anandpur Sahib in Punjab is set to be grounded as a committee appointed by the HP government has found the MoU between the two states "flawed" and tilted in favour of Punjab.
Of the 3,751 metre long ropeway, about 274 metre was to fall in Punjab and remaining 3,476 metre in Himachal. The MoU was signed in July last year.
The MoU for joint venture project was signed amid great fanfare in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Himachal counterpart Prem Kumar Dhumal.
It was also decided to set up a "Special purpose vehicle" to implement the Rs 85-crore project within three years.
However, soon after the change of government in HP, a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary S Roy was formed in February this year to review the terms of the MoU, official sources said.
The report was sent to Law department which found the MoU to be "lopsided and flawed and tilted in favour of Punjab", they said.
The state government was mulling scrapping the MoU and looking into legal aspects and other options which included executing the project by the government on its own with both the connecting points located in Himachal, the sources said.
