Push to eco-tourism, bids for 15 sites invited

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 14 

To promote eco-tourism, the Forest Department in Himachal Pradesh has invited bids for 15 new sites.

As per the new policy, the promoter will have to seek clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Prior to that, the department had leased out sites without any clearance, to which the Centre had objected. Initially, it  was proposed that only private players with a turnover of Rs 3 crore would be allowed to apply. For Himachalis, this amount was Rs 1 crore which was reduced to Rs 50 lakh and the application amount of Rs 5,000 too waived off. 

The private players will have to seek  clearance from the Centre for use of forest land for non-forest commercial activity. They will have to pay the net present value (NPV) for a hectare of land at Rs 7 lakh besides undertaking mandatory compensatory plantation on two hectares. 

The Forest Department is running 31 eco-tourism sites  under public, private partnership (PPP). Besides this, projects are being run at five sites, all leased out to private players. These include Ala Fort Rest House, Dalhousie; Shoghi camping site, Barog camping site and Chewa camping site near Barog and Moti Kunah Hill Top camping. 

The state government gets a revenue of Rs 98.75 lakh annually from these sites which were neither re-advertised nor any enhancement made in the lease amount, resulting in a loss to the exchequer. The lease period of the sites expired earlier this year. The Forest Department has more than 100 rest houses located at picturesque sites. Efforts are afoot to raise funds to give a facelift to these rest houses, some of which are in a rather poor shape.