SHIMLA: Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu inaugurated the Asian River Rafting Championship, being organized from 4th March to 9th March, 2024 on River Sutlej, near Basantpur, (Sunni) from the Ridge Shimla today.
As many as 20 National and International teams from Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Iran Iraq, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Indonesia are participating in this championship.
After flagging off the teams participating in the championship, the Chief Minister said that the present State Government was committed to promote adventure tourism in the State and in this direction, a river rafting marathon was also successfully organized at Nadaun in Hamirpur district recently. Besides this, a paragliding championship was also hosted at Junga in Shimla district last year in association with a private company involved in organizing adventure sports. He said that apart from promoting tourism, the hosting of adventure sports and other related tourism activities also creates self-employment opportunities and provides employment to the local people thus adding to their economy. He said that the State Government would keep supporting these adventure activities in future as well.
The Chief Minister said that the tourism sector was the mainstay in strengthening the State's economy and thousands of families were associated with this. The State Government is making earnest efforts to increase the influx of tourists in the State by strengthening the basic infrastructure in the tourism sector. We have fixed a target of attracting five crore tourists in the state annually, he reiterated.
Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan, Chairman, 7th State Finance Commission Nand Lal, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mohan Lal Brakta, MLA Harish Janartha, Chairman, H.P. State Cooperative Bank Devender Shyam, Vice Chairman, H.P. State Forest Development Corporation, Kehar Singh Khachi, Mayor Shimla Municipal Corporation Surinder Chauhan, Congress leaders Satpal Raizada and Surender Mankotia, Director Tourism and Civil Aviation Manasi Sahay Thakur, Deputy Commissioner Shimla Anupam Kashyap and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.