SHIMLA 17 March:

Housing and Urban Development Minister Smt. Sarveen Chaudhary said that modern integrated township at Jathia Devi near Shimla was an important project of the HIMUDA being set up with support of Singapore government. She said the state government would extend its full support for this project for which implementation process would be started soon.

She was presiding over a meeting with the delegates of Singapore Co-operative Enterprises (SCE) to discuss on the implementation strategies of Housing Project at Jathia Devi, here today. The SCE team was led by its Director Evan Cheah, Dr. Naseem and his team members from Mienhardt Company.

The Minister said that the state government was keen to invite such expertise into the state and would facilitate such overseas investment in Himachal Pradesh. She said housing was the basic need of the general public and the state government was endeavouring that a world-class modern township was developed near Shimla airport in a time-bound manner.

She urged SCE to look possibilities of co-operation of Singapore government in the other developmental activities in the State as well. She invited the SCE to deliberate the possibilities with Himachal Pradesh government and assured that government would create an investor friendly atmosphere so that more and more investment could be made in the State to benefit the general public.

Chief Executive Officer-cum-Secretary HIMUDA Umesh Kashyap said that major objective of the Authority was to develop housing colonies at various places of the State under different housing schemes. The operative part of the MOU had been already discussed as HIMUDA would make earnest efforts to ensure that the project was completed in a stipulated time period. Both HIMUDA and SCE along-with Mienhardt would work together to make this project a success in the larger interest of the state, he added.

Director SCE Evan Cheah and Dr. Naseem from Mienhardt Company through their presentations gave a detailed overview of the Enterprises besides their vision envisaged for this township at Jathia Devi.

Chief Engineer HIMUDA Dinesh Sharma presented vote of thanks.

Additional Chief Secretary (Housing) Tarun Kapoor, senior officers of HIMUDA and representatives of SCE and Mienhardt Company attended the meeting.