Addressing the 6th Meeting of Governing Council of NITI Aayog virtually from Shimla, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said that being a hilly State, greater funds and resources were required to create infrastructure in the state as compared to other States.
He said the State Government was laying special stress on making Himachal Pradesh a tourist hub of the Country, pointing out that the biggest bottleneck in this was lack of better air and rail connectivity. He urged the Prime Minister for approval and to provide assistance for construction of Greenfield Airport Mandi and for expansion of Kangra Airport. He said that this would give a big boost to tourism activities, besides being important from a strategic point of view.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired the 6th Meeting of Governing Council of NITI Aayog which was held virtually in which issues related to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing and human resource development were discussed in detail. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh conducted the proceeding of the meeting.
The CM said the State Government was giving top priority on the development of infrastructure in Himachal Pradesh and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking a personal interest in completing the work of Atal Tunnel Rohtang in record time. He said that with the completion of this Tunnel, there has been a lot of improvement in livelihood in Lahaul and Pangi Valley, as thousands of tourists have turned towards this. He said the about 5,000 vehicles were crossing the Rohtang Tunnel daily. Snow Festival has been organized in Keylong Valley for the last one month and people were going to see it from all areas and this would never have been possible without this tunnel, he added.
Thakur said that the Baddi area of the State can boast of being the biggest Pharma hub of Asia, adding that now the State has aggressively made a bid for Bulk Drug Pharma Park for the State. He said that in addition to this the State has also bid for setting up of a Medical Devices Manufacturing Park and Electronic Manufacturing Hub for the State. He urged for approving all these Parks for the State, which would go a long way in transforming the economic condition of the State. He urged the Prime Minister to favourably consider the request of the State in this regard.
He said the State Government made a major improvement in "Ease of doing Business" to encourage investment in the State and has moved from 16th to 7th position. He said that ‘Ground Breaking’ of investment of Rs. 13,500 crore has been performed after Global Investors Meet organised by the State Government on 7thand 8th November, 2019. More projects worth Rs.10,000 crore were ready for ground breaking, he added.