INDIAN STATE : HIMACHAL PRADESH

Investment opportunities in tourism

Major chain of facilities

The State Government also poses for investment Bilaspur-Una-Hamirpur-Kangra sector for massive investment by private sector, for land has been identified especially that adjoining the lakes in Gobind Sagar and Maharana Pratap Sagar. This area is ideal for setting up of amusement parks, herbal gardens, lake resorts and floriculture. The entire belt is dotted with numerous religious places, which can be developed for the development of a major chain of facilities for use by tourist. This area is ideally suitable for adventure sports, water sports, wild life and eco-tourism. To name a few, Pragpur that has been declared a Heritage Village and Masroor, an old rock temple is located in this sector. The Judge's court at Pragpur in Kangra District is a success story as a Heritage Property. Similarly, Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur and Kangra also have religious places like Baba Barbagh Singh, Deot-Sidh and Shakti temples like Naina Devi, Chintpurni, Jwalamukhi, Chamunda.

International standard facilities for tourists in tribal areas

The tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh are known for natural beauty and have recently been opened up to foreign tourists. There is an urgent need to provide clean international standard facilities for tourists visiting these areas. These areas have been opened for private sector investment for creation of facilities for tourists.

Ropeways and ski-resorts

Other areas, which are opened for large investment, are development of ski-resorts, lakes and ropeways. A sky-resort can be developed near Chanshal range, which is one of the largest ranges for skiing in the country. Another beautiful area for ski-resort along with a couple of ropeways is the area above Solang in Kullu Valley. This is one of the last areas for the development of a ski-resort. The State Govt. will provide all assistance in terms of clearance including forest clearance. The emphasis is to develop tourism facilities in such a way so that the fragile ecology of the state is preserved and is not tampered with. There are many identified ropeways in Himachal Pradesh. These are Kullu to Bijli mahadev (in Kullu), Mandi to Tarna (in Mandi town), Dharamkot to Triund (in Dharamshala), Narkanda to Hattu Peak and Tara Devi to Shimla (in Shimla), which are ready for private sector investment.

Heritage Properties

Himachal has an enormous range of heritage properties. Some of these are ancient forts and some of these are colonial mansions. Then there are places that belong to an era gone by and mark opulent life style of India's Princes and then there are century old hotels. Many of heritage properties have been converted into commercial heritage property and are being developed. Big hotels chain can have a look at some of these properties are for being developed as heritage property. Some colonial buildings can be found especially in Kasauli and Dalhousie for their development as Heritage properties. Many States like Rajasthan have developed heritage properties with the active participation of private sector for development of these "Heritage Properties".

Adventure sports

Himachal Pradesh has excellent scope for adventure tourism. For example para gliding, hand gliding, white water rafting, mountaineering and trekking. There are 270 identified treks in Himachal, which are utilised by domestic and foreign tourists. Trekking equipments are also made available by the department to interested tourists and regional branch of Himalyan Mountaineering Institute, Dharamshala is also playing important role in this direction. Himachal is full of beautiful places many of them are totally unexplored and unknown and hence hold immense lure for the tourists. Private sector can play a big role in the provision of appropriate transport arrangement for tourists from outside the state.

Civil aviation

Civil Aviation is very important area for private sector investment. At present the state offers three airports for private sector participation. These are Banikhet in Chamba district, Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur District and Sunder Nagar in Mandi Districts. In addition, the private sector is also encouraged for starting helicopter services within and outside the State so as to improve accessibility to and within the State.

Information Technology

With a coordinated action plan by the government and industry, NASSCOM has projected that the IT software and services industry in the state of Himachal Pradesh can grow at an accelerated pace to achieve an annual revenue of Rs.20,000 crore (US$ 4.7 billion) by the year 2009-10, which could be as much as 4-5% of the projected turnover of US$ 100 billion of the Indian software and services industry in that year.

Out of the Rs.20,000 crore of projected revenue from IT software and services industry for Himachal Pradesh in 2009-10, it is expected that Rs.14,000 crore would come from exports and Rs.6,000 crore from the domestic market. The break-up is projected as follows:

Horticulture

The state has made significant progress in the development of Horticulture. The
topographical variations and altitudinal differences coupled with fertile, deep and well-drained soils favour the cultivation of temperate to sub tropical fruits. The region is also suitable for cultivation of ancillary horticultural produce like flowers, mushroom, honey and hops. During the year 2005-06 up to December, 2005, 6.78 lakh tonnes of fruits were produced in the state and it is envisaged to bring 4000 hectares of additional area under fruit plants against which 3825 hectares of area was brought under plantation up to December, 2005. Growing of off-season vegetables has also picked up in the state. During the year 2004-05, 8.35 lakh tonnes of vegetables were produced as against 7.85 lakh tonnes in 2003-04.

Thrust Areas

• Units based directly on horticultural produce
  
• Mineral water bottling
  
• Automobile manufacturing units
  
• Cold storage units/chain
  
• Fruit/vegetable/herbs/honey/spices based wineries
  
• Production of ciders/ale/liqueurs
  
• Sericulture/ handloom/khadi industry related manufacturing industrial activities
  
• Electronic units including computer software and information technology except assembling units where value addition is less than 15 percent
  
• Floriculture
  
• Medicinal herbs, aromatic herbs
  
• Horticulture, maize based industries, herbal based industries and agro based industries excluding those in the negative list
  
• Sugar and its by-products
  
• Silk and silk products
  
• Wool and wool products
  
• Woven fabrics
  
• Sports goods and articles and equipment for general physical exercise and equipment for adventure sports/activities, tourism
  
• Paper and paper products excluding those in negative list
  
• Pharma products
  
• Information and communication technology industry, computer hardware, call centers, IT software and services
  
• Eco-tourism hotels, resorts in locations other than those located in the municipal limits /NAC/ Nagar Panchayats/ special area development authority limits, as the case may be of Shimla, Dalhousie, Macleodganj and Manali.
  
• Spa, entertainment/ amusement parks roadways, etc.
  
• Industrial gases
  
• Handicrafts
  
• Non timber forest product based industries
  
• Precision industries