CM says Hero Honda offered alternative land in HP

Shimla, Jul 29 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said his government had offered alternative land for the Hero Honda Motors, who were planning to set up a two-wheel factory, in Baddi area of Solan district of the state.

''Enough land is available in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Swarghat area.

The government has offered alternate and for the Rs 600 crore project,'' he told reporters here.

Mr Singh said the land earlier offered to the company was not forest area but government land under forest department. ''The opposition parities made an issue without ascertaining the facts.'' Accusing the opposition of creating an atmosphere that was discouraging investors, he said, they by spreading rumours, were harming the interests of the state.

He said the state government was persuading the industry to set up their bases in the interior areas of the state since a majority of them had come up in the areas close to the Punjab border.

Claiming that the state would suffere a loss of Rs 80,000 crore in the next 40 years by not retaining 25 per cent equity in 2,051 MW and Parbati and 800 MW Kol Dam hydro power projects, he said the previous BJP government had harmed the interests of the state by not retaining the equity in these projects.

Mr Singh said the state government was earning a sum of Rs 1,000 crore per year from the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri hydro power project because of 25 per cent equity.

''If only the previous government had followed the same benchmark in Kol Dam and Parbati projects, the revenue would have increased by Rs 2,000 core annually,'' he said.

Referring to the 126 MW Larji hydel project being executed by the state electricity board, he said the project would be commissioned soon as one trial run had already been conducted.

The chief minister said the Rs 1,000 crore plan was under implementation for providing regular and adequate power supply in the industrial units of the Baddi-Barotiwala area of the state.

Denying that there was any shortage of power in the industrial areas, he said besides adequate power, cheapest power was a major attraction for industrialists in Himachal.

UNI AS HS AB PM2038