Himachal plans to make your journey The Destination

The tourism department is planning to set up Himachal Haat — an announcement on this was made in the state’s budget for the year 2010-11 — on the Shimla-Kalka National Highway,near Kandaghat. The luxurious resort,The Destination,will come up in the private sector.

It’s however a different story that the resort has been in the thick of controversies over its recent “sale deal” involving the state’s top ruling politicians,including Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. Manju Seth,a Canada-based entrepreneur and the resort’s executive director,is,however,going ahead with her ambitious plan.

This is the first business effort in the private sector to make tourists stop midway to Shimla. The ‘Himachal Food and Craft Fair’,as Seth claims,has the blend of Chandigarh’s Kala Gram and Haryana’s Surajkund Mela. “I picked up ideas from different places and am trying to package everything to implement in this venture,of course a bit differently,” she says.

Work on the erection of structures and mud plastering has already picked up at the site. Saleem-ul-Haq,a contractor from West Bengal who had earlier worked on the Eco-Tourism Potter-Hill (Shimla) project,says the structures would be 100 per cent ethnic bamboo frames and with chicken-net inside mud-plastered walls and dry grass roofs. By mid-April,all 13 mud houses will be in place,he claims.

Seth plans to complete all basic work by the end of April and throw it open to the tourists by May. “We will have a tie-up with taxi operators and I am also planning to get some seats reserved in state buses to ferry tourists up to The Destination for guided trips,” she proposes.

S Sundaram,who owns Sundaram’s,a popular South Indian food chain at Chandigarh,has also been invited to have a tie-up.

Speaking on the tourism department’s role in the project,Arun Sharma,Director (Tourism),says: “The project was conceived in 1984. Every year,the government used to keep provision in the budget to set up Himachal Haat. The attempts did not materialise either for want of a concept,theme,or mode.”

When Seth came up with her idea,the department decided to endorse her initiative. “We will not invest even a penny. It’s a private initiative. The tourism department will support the publicity part,” says Sharma.