Amid uncertainty over the future of around Rs 1600 crore Himalayan Ski Village project to be setup at Manali of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, the State Government has written a letter to the company to know its intent of setting up the mega project.
The proposed multi-million dollar project is being promoted by Alfred Ford of Ford Motor Company near the picturesque tourist town of Manali and was cleared by the previous Congress Government headed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The Ford Motor Company had in April 2004, shown keen interest in setting up a high-end ski resort project in Manali. In December 2005, the then Congress Government entered into an agreement with the Himalayan Ski Village Private ltd. Company for setting up the project. In a written reply to the question of State BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti, Chief Minister on Friday said that on August 5, 2013, the State Government had written a letter to Himalayan Ski Village Private ltd to know the intent of the company in setting up the project.
Chief Minister in his reply said that as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by the company to the State Government, around 116 hectare of land was needed for the project, out of which 68.2 hectare of land was private land and rest land was Government land, for which mandatory clearance from concerned departments was needed. During recent Mandi bye-poll, the issue of Himalayan Ski village resurfaced when the opposition BJP alleged that State Government was moving ahead with the project ignoring the interest and concerns of the local people.
Ministers of the State Government had then denied any such move. However, recent letter of the state government to the company clearly states that depending on the intent of the company, the project could be revived.Previous BJP Government had scrapped the project after the company failed to furnish the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report and amid wide scale protest at the local level, during the public hearing. The company had then moved High Court in January 2010. On June 5, 2012, the High Court had quashed the order of state government to scrap the project terming that prescribed method was not followed. Talks of revival of the project gained momentum once again after the current Congress government came back to power.
