Shimla: Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today announced that the Sri Anandpur
Sahib-Sri Naina Devi ropeway project would be revived soon and that the
Punjab government had given its consent to it.
"I had written to
my Punjab counterpart requesting him to take a personal interest in
reviving this long pending ambitious project and a communique in this
regard has been received from the Punjab chief minister today," he said.
Chief
Minister Amrinder Singh has directed the Punjab tourism secretary to
finalise all formalities regarding the project and sign a fresh MoU to
initiate the work, Thakur said.
The chief minister said a
memorandum of understanding was signed between the governments of
Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to set up the project under PPP mode (public
private partnership) on July 26, 2012, but it did not come into effect
for certain reasons and was later scrapped by the previous Congress
government.
Thakur said the project would be a major attraction
for pilgrims and tourists visiting the holy cities of Sri Naina Devi in
Himachal and Sri Anadpur Sahib in Punjab.
The two shrines are
located at a distance of about 90 km and the ropeway, costing about Rs
100 crore, would reduce the distance to 15 km.
PTI
