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Virbhadra invites Tatas, Reliance to invest in Himachal Shimla, July 23 The Chief Minister and Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri will lead a delegation of high-ranking officials from various departments for investment meets proposed at Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore in the month of September-October. “The CM has written letters to big names in the industry citing factors like uninterrupted power supply, land availability and pollution-free environment for making big investment in Himachal,” said Agnihotri. He said efforts would be made to attract the maximum possible investment in industry, power and tourism sectors. The departments to be involved in the exercise aimed at wooing industry bigwigs include Industry, Power, Tourism, Revenue, Environment and Science and Technology, Labour and Excise. In fact, there is a proposal to hold the investment meet with big industrialists and entrepreneurs. Some of the clearances can be accorded there and then. Himachal, which has the advantage of reliable and cheap power, has not been able to attract big industrial investment. The state could not fully capitalize the Special Industrial Package it enjoyed for 10 years from 2003 onwards. Out of the proposed Rs 45,000 crore investment, projects worth only Rs 12,000 crore were set up in the state.Besides accelerating the pace of industrialisation, endeavour is to create employment opportunities with the number of jobless youth in the state being over eight lakh. There being limited scope of industrial investment since the industrial estates are confined to the border areas, it is only by promoting tourism and power that benefits of development will reach to the people residing in remote rural areas. Efforts have been made to identify new sites for creating industrial hubs preferably in parts other than the border areas where the entire industry is concentrated. The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area is the biggest industrial estate having 1,181 small and big units with an investment of Rs 13,654 crores and employment for over 72,000 persons. Despite drastic decline in revenue from the power sector this year due to the absence of hydro-power buyers, Himachal is keen to harness its vast hydro-power potential worth over 27,000 MW. The hydro-power projects bring in a lot of direct and indirect investment, particularly in the areas where there are hardly any employment opportunities. Investment meets * The CM and industries minister will lead a delegation of high-ranking officials from various departments for investment meets * These meets are proposed at Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangaluru during September-October * Industries minister said efforts would be made to attract investment in the industry, power and tourism sectors * Some of the clearances can be accorded there and then
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