HimVani
Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government and Shimla Municipal Corporation are thinking big these days to preserve the heritage of the erstwhile summer capital of India. Right from conservation of heritage buildings to construction of parking lots – they are working hard to get it done on loans from the Asian Development Bank. While the bank had earlier this year agreed to fund a Rs 400-crore tourism promotion project, this is the first time it has been approached for this kind of a project.

On Thursday, a list of nearly 24 important heritage buildings was handed over to a two-member team of Asian Development Bank as part of an initiative to preserve Shimla’s heritage buildings and promote them as tourism landmarks. The team visited several heritage buildings and also sites under consideration for parking lots in the city.

The Corporation also submitted a proposal of about 69 crores to the ADB elaborating plans to have a parking lot for about 1200 cars near the Lift below the Mall Road and a 450-car parking near the Tourist Information Centre at the entry point of the town.

It may be remembered that for the first time in the history of the Shimla municipal corporation, a deficit budget of Rs 44.80 crore was presented last year. The estimated expenditure during the current financial year was expected to be Rs 121.77 crore while the income during this duration was expected to be Rs 70.50 crore.
Now is that what is called the debt trap?