J&K may get Rs 1,000 cr funding

Telecom major Bharti Group, hotelier Lalit Suri and Kolkata-based Peerless are among the companies which have proposed investments of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in Jammu and Kashmir under the ambit of industry body FICCI.

"Many companies have proposed to invest in the state provided the government comes up with a support plan," FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra told reporters in Srinagar.

Mitra said Bharti group plans to invest Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) during 2006-07 for expansion and doubling its subscriber base in the state.

Hotelier Lalit Suti, CMD of Bharat Hotels Ltd, has proposed to establish a hotel in the ski resort of Gulmarg and a shopping mall in Srinagar if the state government provided adequate land, he said.

Kolkata-based Peerless also planned to set up a new hotel or taking over a sick hotel in the state, while Continental Construction has proposed a power project, he said, adding all the proposals entail a total investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Gulam Nabi Azad regretted that the domestic industry had shunned the state earlier and invited private players to invest in the state.

"Flow of domestic private sector investment will be a vote of confidence in the extant situation in the state as well as in the emerging direction that the government is giving to the state," Azad said.

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