No Raid de Himalaya in Himachal

Tribune News Service

Mandi, September 19

Raid De Himalaya, a car rally event, will not be organized in Himachal state this year because of poor response from organizers.

Manjeev Bhalla, organizer of event, told The Tribune that The Maruti Suzuki had made some changes in its policy, which provides its cars for rally. Due to poor response from the sponsors it was not feasible to conduct the raid in Himachal state.

“This year we are going to organize four days rally in Ladakh region of Zanskar valley and if Himachal Pradesh had to be added then it would require extra days to the event, which was not possible” he remarked.

He said “In 20 years period it would be first time that we would miss the Raid De Himalaya in Himachal state. This event was started as a small four-day rally from Shimla to Kaza and reverse in its first edition of 1999. Tough terrain in Lahaul and Spiti and then Ladakh and the adventures en route the event soon earned reputation of ‘Most difficult rally’ in the country.

He said that the state government supported the rally every year and the tourism department played a crucial role for its advertizing.