Himalayan ski plan hangs in balance

A project that would transform a former Himalayan haven for western hippies and Tibetan refugees into India’s first luxury ski resort hangs in the balance this week.

The government of Himachal Pradesh state in northern India is expected shortly to announce the results of a review of the $600m (€398m, £361m) Himalayan Ski Village project in Manali, a hill station on the road to the former Tibetan kingdom of Ladakh, that was conceived by a consortium of investors led by Alfred Ford, the great grandson of US industrialist Henry Ford.
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The government argues that the proposal, which is being financed mostly by wealthy individuals, is not acceptable in its present form because of environmental issues while proponents of the resort say it has become a test case of the difficulties facing foreign direct investors in India, particularly those forced to deal with state administration.

“The politics of negativity has prevailed and another FDI project in India may soon depart for friendlier shores,” John Sims, managing director of Himalayan Ski Village, said ahead of a meeting of government officials on the project on Saturday.

In spite of its prime Himalayan location and stable political environment, a lack of upscale facilities has made snow sports mostly an activity for the more adventurous in India. Ski enthusiasts access the mountains either through a few basic resorts, by helicopter or, in the case of the more extreme, by “yak skiing” – ascending the ski slopes using ropes pulled by the Himalayan beasts.

In 2004, Mr Ford and Mr Sims, who met in the 1970s through the Hare Krishna movement, came up with the idea of developing a Himalayan ski resort near Manali that would be of the standard of Vail in Colorado. They chose a 113-acre site that rises as high as 14,000 feet. The resort would have a six-kilometre main gondola, 700 hotel rooms costing about Rs8,000 ($172, €116, £105) a night and 20,000 sq ft of convention space.

They won the support of the previous Congress party-led state government, which signed an implementation agreement for the project in 2006. But the opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata party and residents and activists in the Kullu Valley opposed the plan, fearing it would damage pastures and water supplies. There were also allegations in the Indian media that the resort was a real estate venture masquerading as a tourism project.