Efforts on to restore hot-water springs: CM

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 30

The state government will explore the possibility of restoring hot-water sulphur springs at Tattapani, which will be submerged under the Kol Dam water.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said this while presiding over the 140th meeting of the Board of Directors (BoD) of the HP Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) here today.

He said the possibility would be explored to restore hot-water springs near Tattapani as 2 bigha land was available with the Kol Dam authorities.

He said the issue regarding the transfer of land had been taken up with higher authorities for final approval.

The CM said the Kol Dam reservoir at Tattapani would submerge the hot-water springs and as such it was felt necessary to find an alternative for restoring hot baths somewhere above the water table.

“HPTDC engineers visited the office of the Kol Dam authorities at Slapper and the approval for the transfer of land is awaited,” he said.

The HPTDC, despite many of its 60 hotels and restaurants suffering huge losses, had earned operational profit of Rs 251.94 lakh and net profit of Rs 40.49 lakh after a depreciation of Rs 211.45 lakh in 2014-15.

However, the contentious issue of leasing out of loss-making units was not taken up by the BoD.

“On the directions of the CM, we have decided to frame a policy for opening promotional avenues for the hospitality staff and regularisation of 600 utility staff to reduce stagnation in their cadre,” HPTDC vice-chairman Harish Janartha said. He said a trade test could be done to assess their efficiency and proper utilisation of their services.

Janartha said rationalisation of staff would be undertaken to ensure that there was no overstaffing at any unit.

“Staff posting at any unit will be made strictly on the basis of business it generates and promotions too will be merit-cum-seniority-based so that those doing good work can be rewarded,” he said.

The BoD also gave its nod for revised revenue and capital budget of the corporation for 2014-15 and the proposed revenue and capital budget for 2014-15.