The state government has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for 228 projects in the state during the past few months with investment of over Rs. 27, 515 crores. This is for the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh that entrepreneurs have come forward in such a big number to invest in the state.Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur disclosed this while reviewing the progress on ‘Him Pragati’ portal to fast track clearances and approval of various developmental projects. He reviewed the progress made on the MoUs signed by the state government for various projects in the state and instructed the departments concerned to speed up all the required clearances in a time bound manner.He said that the state government has launched special campaign to attract investors which has shown excellent results and it is expected that as a result of initiative taken by the state government to organise first ever global investors meet, the state would be able to achieve the target of attracting investment of Rs. 85 thousand crores.The Chief Minister said effective and regular monitoring of on-going projects is vital for time bound and quality completion of various infrastructural developmental projects being executed by various agencies in the state and Him Pragati portal started in the state is proving to be very effective in redressing the concerns of the investors. This has been made an interactive portal and the responsibility has been fixed on the concerned departments to redress the issues and provide fast clearances to the investors.Jai Ram Thakur said that all the MoUs will be brought under Him Pragati portal to monitor their progress in a better manner.
Besides, the user name and password would be provided to all the investors so that they can raise their concerns and check the action taken by the concerned departments. He said that no lapse would be allowed at any cost in facilitating the entrepreneurs and strict action would be taken against the officers for callous effrots.The Chief Minister directed the Tourism department to prepare a land pool for developing various projects since land requirement is the main criterion especially for tourism projects. He also advised the revenue department to hold meetings with the property dealers for identifying the available land.He directed the Town and Country Planning department to forward the case to the government for removing all kinds of no objection certificates (NOC) for land development by the department. He said since the NOC by the TCP department has no relevance so it should not be imposed so as to avoid the unnecessary delays for the approvals of the developmental projects.Jai Ram Thakur asked the public works department to speed up the work on developing SASE helipad, Manali for which the state has already taken permission from the Defence Ministry. He said the state government has also planned to starting joy ride from SASE helipad, Manali to Rohtang Pass which would be an added priority to the tourists for which helicopters have also been purchased.He stressed that government would also consider to do away with the practice of obtaining NOC's from Gram Panchayats as most of them are unnecessary and create hindrance for the development projects.Industries Minister Bikram Singh also gave his valuable suggestions and said that the effective steps taken by the state government would certainly facilitate the investors in taking early clearance and commissioning of their projects ventures in the state.Chief Secretary B.K Agarwal said that the Industries department has signed MoUs for 122 projects so far out of which work on 57 projects has already been started. He assured the investors that the state government would provide them all assistance in executing their projects and all the concerns raised by them would be resolved on top priority.Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Shrikant Baldi conducted the proceedings of the meeting and said that this meeting is a vital platform for discussing policies related issues for ensuring ease of doing business.Additional Chief Secretaries Anil Khachi, Sanjay Gupta, Manoj Kumar and R.D Dhiman, Additional Chief Secretary to the CM Sanjay Kundu, Principle Secretaries, Secretaries, Head of the departments and representatives of the industrial houses investing the state attended the meeting.