LUDHIANA: In a development which may be nothing less than a setback for the Punjab government’s campaign to attract industrial investment in the state, the Himachal Pradesh government has given a lucrative offer to the bicycle major Hero Cycles Limited to set up its proposed bicycle manufacturing plant in the state.The company had long been contemplating to set up its unit in the proposed Cycle Valley at Dhanansu (near Ludhiana). According to highly placed sources in the Himachal government, a meeting took place between senior bureaucrats of the state and representatives of Hero Cycles Limited on Friday.Though repeated attempts to contact the Himachal industry minister Bikram Thakur and chief secretary Vineet Chaudhary turned futile, however — speaking to TOI on condition of anonymity — a senior official of Hero Cycles said: “A meeting was conducted at Peterhoff Shimla on Friday between representatives of our company and very senior level officials of the Himachal government. Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur too was in the meeting briefly. The state government has given a very lucrative offer to our company to set up a bicycle manufacturing plant in the state near Punjab’s border, extending full cooperation in all aspects.”The official also informed that the rate at which the land was being offered to their company could not be termed as nominal, even though the offer was ‘simply unbelievable’. “However, it is up to our management to take a call on this proposal,” he added.Notably, Hero cycles has been actively demanding land in the proposed Cycle Valley project, which is proposed to be set up in more than 300 acres. The project — which was initially floated by the Akali government in 2016 — could not see the light of day due to one roadblock or another. After Akalis could not launch it, the Congress government — which took over reins of the state in 2017 — too has been dilly-dallying over it. Hero Cycles, on the other hand, had several times confirmed they were willing to buy more than 100 acres of land, and make a huge investment to set up a state-of-the-art cycle manufacturing project in the valley.A Punjab government official said the meeting could well be a pressure tactic adopted by the group to make the Punjab government realize that Hero Cycles was willing to make an investment out of the state as well, because of the delay in the Cycle Valley project.

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