Dharamsala, April 6, 2013: The urban areas of Himachal Pradesh will soon get a face lift, as the Asian Development Bank is releasing a sum of Rs. 475 crore for this purpose.
Disclosing this in a special interview with this Correspondent at Dharamsala on Saturday the Minister of Urban Development, Himachal Sudheer Sharma said, “One will soon see a definite facelift in the Urban sector of the state, especially in the areas of street lighting, drinking water, roads and parking facilities.”
Minister said that Himachal Pradesh is the primary attraction area for tourists, specially, a large bunk of the foreigners visit Dharamsala and its surroundings. To give them extra in the circuit, the state government is paying special attention.
He said, “The Gaggal Airport of Dharamsala shall have regular flights to Delhi and Chandigarh by Spice jet. The company successfully landed the bigger plane in the airport recently, and as and when DGCA gives the clearance, a regular flight shall start, say in a fortnight.” The flights were suspended last year due to cancellation of the license of solo operator, the King Fisher.
Minister said that there is a regular congestion of traffic in Kotwali Bazaar in Dharamsala –McLeodganj section, to avoid this, the previous Congress-led government planned to construct a rope way between these two points, but the matter could not be materialised. He said, “This project shall be taken back from Tourism Department and be handed over to Himachal Pradesh Infrastructure Development Board to give it a required speed.” This rope way shall attract tourist and reduce the vehicular traffic from the city to Dalai Lama’s place.
Minister said that another Rope Way proposed in the area is between Chamunda Devi and Himani Chamunda, the later is situated at the height of 10,500 ft. “The tendering for this project shall be done next month, “said Sudheer.
He said that one Urban Mobility transport Authority is coming up in Himachal to regulate the buses, taxis, autos and other mode of vehicles in the urban areas of Himachal. He said that apart from traditional mode, some alternate urban transport modes like Monorail are being planned for Shimla and so called second capital of state, Dharamsala.
He said, “Previously some money was given to Shimla (under special category state) by Urban Development Ministry under JNNRUM scheme for city buses, but the funds were transferred to Himachal road transport HRTC. Now these funds shall only be given to Urban Mobility transport Authority for its right use.” He said that this time Dharamsala city has also been included for this type of buses, which are being funded by Centre.