Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday said Rs 50 crore tourism development project has been sent for ADB funding for Mandi town to give boost to the tourism activities.

Presiding over the Platinum Jubilee celebration of Vallabh Government Degree College at Mandi of which he was a student, Thakur said  under this project, a lake and other basic tourism infrastructure would be developed to take Mandi town on the world tourist map.

He said a helipad would be constructed at Kangnidhar in order to provide heli taxi facility to the region and added that Medical University would be constructed at New Chowk to provide best medical education to the students and the cluster university would be made a fully fledged university soon.

Thakur, who was on a whirlwind tour of Mandi district, said opening of a  new International  Airport  in the Balh Valley would bring new opportunities to the people.

“The only obstacle in the way of the international air port  was fog for about 2-3 hours in the morning,” he said, adding that this too has been overcome by experts who said that latest technology had been evolved to make the landing and take off of flights trouble free.

Thakur said that about 5-km plain stretch of land in Ner Chowk was available for the new Airport around the Nagchala belt. The people would be requested to give their land for the Airport for ushering in a new era of prosperity and development against suitable compensation.

The Chief Minister said during his recent meeting with the union civil aviation minister, Suresh Prabhu,  in New Delhi he brought to his notice that during last year 52.26 lakh tourist including 1.57 lakh foreigners visited Mandi and the surrounding districts.

He said Mandi had emerged as a big educational hub in Himachal Pradesh with the opening of two medical colleges, IIT at Komand besides a number of health and educational institutions.

Against the backdrop, new International Airport would serve a new fillip to promote tourism and boost overall economy of the State.