Governor Calls upon NRI’s to invest in Himachal.

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V.S. Kokje, Governor called upon NRIs interested to invest in India to choose Himachal Predesh as the State has good potential available in the areas of hydro-power generation, tourism, education and information & Bio-technology. He said that the State Government has framed its industrial policy with a view to invite private participation and offered various special incentives to the investors.

Governor was addressing the NRI’s in a Global Investors Conference for Infrastructure Development named 4th Parvasi Divas-2007 which was organized by the International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry(IPCSI)at Chandigarh today.

Governor said that State has been making steady progress in all spheres particularly in the area of infrastructure such as roads, hydro-power, horticulture and agricultural production, transport, education, industry, health, tourism and in many other sectors. The progressive policies of the State Government have led to speedy growth in all sectors, he added.

He said that the Tourism has emerged as a very important sector in the State and as a major engine of growth and employment generation, was coming up fast on the International Tourist map, as an important adventure sports destination. There were vast opportunities to develop tourism related activities such as Ski Resorts, Golf Courses, Health and Herbal Resorts, Ropeways, Theme and Recreation Parks, Special Tourism Zones and Rural Tourism Hubs besides new Airports, Helipads and Water Sports besides Medical Tourism, he added.

Governor said that Himachal Pradesh has it peculiar features such as pollution free environment and offers abundant opportunities for investment in various sectors including hydropower and those based on local forest and Horticulture produce. Recently, new hydropower policy has also been announced to attract private players in the area, he added.

He lauded the efforts of IPCSI for offering a common platform to discuss ways and means with NRIs and Corporates for promoting infrastructure-related projects.

Shri Kuldeep Kumar, Industries Minister highlighted the policy and industrial friendly guidelines of the State and said that the State Government was contemplating to establish big trade centers in suitable locations of the State. He said that education, hydropower and tourism were the main sectors where the Government has invited the private participation in a big way. He said that the Government has evolved a mechanism of Single Window Clearance of the projects in the State.
 

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4 Comments

  1. says: Rajender bali

    Dear Sir,

    It was nice to know about Himachal govt initiative to invite NRI to invest in Himachal. I am a Himachali and based in Dubai since last 12 years. I am very keen to invest in two projects (Education and Hydro Power) in Himachal. I have the requisite skills, contacts, knowledge, and finance. Above all I have strong motivation and interest to start something from my own state.

    I need to know the concerned officers in Himachal government who can help me to understand the potential, procedures, govt policies, etc. I am trying since last two weeks to reach officers for knowing more about Hydro Plants but sorry to say I am not getting any response.

    It will be a great help if my e-mail can be forwarded to the concerned officers in respective Ministries Or else the contatcs can be forwarded to me with their phone and e-mail addresses and I will contact them to explore further.

    Trust to receive quick reply and I promise to establish great institutions in Himachal and help our own Himachalis to grow and experience the modernized world in this fast changing world.

    Waiting to hear soon from anyone from Govt. or entrepreneurs.

    With best personal regards,

    Rajender Bali

    1. says: varun

      i want to know in which sector u want to invest because i have 100 bigha of land at namasidhar village chamba town near hill station dalhousie and khajjiar . Former mizoram governer has purchased 42 acre of land for opening word class university with colaboration with cambridge univeristy and their new hill station project at same village for more detail about land and location u can contact me at 9418717139 or land line no 01899 223576

  2. says: Sumedh

    Despite public resolve, Himachal goes slow on hydel privatisation
    Ashwani Sharma

    Shimla, January 17: Almost four years have gone by and only three hydel projects have been privatised by the Virbhadra Singh government. Interestingly, the government had made a public resolve to put the state on an accelerated hydro-power generation programme.

    Three projects, which have been allotted so far include Jangi Thopan and Thopan Powari [480 MW each] to a Dutch company Brakel Corporation and Kutehar [260 MW] to Delhi-based company M/s DS Constructions through a process of global bidding.

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    But, in case of the projects below 100 MW in capacity, for which the bids were invited a year back for allotments through the MoU route, the government seems to be undecided. Yet, the authorities of the HP State Electricity Board [HPSEB] claim that a list of parties shortlisted for the allotment of seven-odd projects was sent long back. “The delay is on the part of the government, not here,” a senior HPSEB official told The Indian Express yesterday.

    In all, there are at least 40 projects which the government had put in the list of privatisation — both through global bidding and also the MoU route.

    And on the government side the stand is obvious. “We are just in the middle of the process for the finalisation of the parties. The Infrastructure Development Board [IDB] — a high level official body — will soon make its recommendations. Next, it’s all up to the government and the cabinet,” says S S Parmar, the state’s chief secretary. Parmar is the chairman of the IDB which is entrusted with the crucial task of finalisation of companies.

    The IDB, which last month had taken a decision to call the companies for their presentations to know their financial strengths and also assess their seriousness to execute the projects, has completed the exercise only for two projects. Of the five others on the waiting list, two are expected to be taken up this weekend.

    Even then, say some of the bidder companies, the final decisions to allocate the projects will remain with the political leaders. Some of the bidder companies — which were also shortlisted by the HPSEB — mainly belong to the politicians, most of them in states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. Yet none of them has any power generation experience.

    Ever since the government had advertised the projects for privatisation, the HPSEB is understood to have changed the eligibility parameters and evaluation criteria more than three times. The highest marks ie 65 have surprisingly been kept for financial strength as compared to 30 marks for their technical strengths. Only five marks are reserved for project development experience.

    This actually, say the representatives of a few companies, is aimed to benefit those companies which are financially sound but have little or no technical knowledge of hydro-power development.

    That was one of the reasons that most of the projects allotted to the private power producers — both by the BJP government or earlier governments — had failed to take off. The only exceptions are Jai Prakash Company’s Baspa-II [800 MW] and the Malana hydel project [86 MW] commissioned and manned by the Bhilwara group. The Baspa-II project in Kinnaur happens to be a single example — a project awarded by the Shanta Kumar government in 1991-1992 even before the Centre amended the laws enabling private investment in the power sector.

    Questions are now also being raised on the exemption of projects below 100 MW from the competitive bidding process, which enables the government to use its discretion in the allotment of projects without adhering to the fixed norms. Another disadvantage to the government is that it loses a huge amount of upfront premium being levied on the companies through competitive bidding.

    In case of three recently allotted projects, the government has earned an upfront premium of Rs 482 crore. An upfront premium of Rs 53 lakh per MW has been bid by DS Constructions to bag the Kutehar project.

    But the state government and the HPSEB hold completely divergent views on the levying of upfront premium on the companies which are being allotted projects through the MoU route instead of global bidding. “Where is the catch?” question the state’s power engineers.

    Yet Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh asserts, “The state is very much on the fast track to harness its power potential. And, the hydro-power policy released this month makes our goals very clear.”

    Till now, the state has been able to harness only 6,150 MW of power of which state sector HPSEB’s contribution has been just 413 MW. The rest includes 386 MW in the private sector and the 1,500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri in the joint sector. The remaining 3,829.57 MW is in the Central sector.

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