10 acres more land for Himachal spice park

Shimla :The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to lease out 10 more acres of land to the Spice board of India to set up a spice park in the Kangra valley.

This land will be provided on the campus of the HP Agriculture university in Palampur.

The state cabinet which met here Tuesday also decided to introduce new licenses for inter-state sale of bottled Indian Made Foreign Spirit (IMFS) by non-manufacturer dealers.

Presently, the export of bottled spirit is allowed only from distilleries, breweries and bottling plants on receipt of import permit issued by the excise and taxation department.

For state Valued Tax (VAT) it was decided that a branch of any nationalised bank can function as a treasury bank for government transactions.

Approval was accorded for financial assistance of Rs. 40 crore to the state run HIMFED as margin money from National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) for production, processing, marketing, storage, export and import of agricultural produce.

The cabinet gave its approval for transferring land in the name of National Council of Science Museum, Ministry of Culture for the construction of Science Centre at Palampur in the campus of HP Agriculture University.

Approval was accorded for felling of trees in government and private land in Shimla town as recommended by the cabinet sub-committee.

Permission was also given to reduce the permit fee of kail pine cones at Rs 500 per quintal instead of Rs 1000 as there was a sharp drop in kail cone export due to raising of export fee.

A decision was taken to provide government land on lease to the Tarini Electric Power limited in Kullu valley for setting up Kurpan (5 MW) hydel project.

The Cabinet approved to provide time line extension to Tidong II (60 MW) hydro power project in Kinnaur district without levying extension fee for a period of six months to submit a bankable DPR.

Approval was accorded invite fresh bids within a month for allotment of Lower Sumej (5 MW), Tauhuk (4.5 MW) and Kareri (5 MW) hydro power projects on BOT basis.

The remaining work of bridges, approaches, widening and strengthening of Mehatpur-Una-Jhalera-Amb road under the World Bank assistance will cost Rs 66 crore.

The Himachal government also approved four new industrial projects . Nod was given Tuesday for the expansion and diversification of 11 proposals.

The new proposals approved are Key Technocasts, Mahadev Pyrolysis, Zira Foods and Natural Beverages.

The expansion proposals include the Dabur India, Lectrix Motors and Jupiter Solar Power among others.