Himachal can now host international skiing and snowboarding championships as Solang slopes near Manali are being developed to meet all the requirements of international standards. The length of the existing slope is being increased by over 130m. The surface of the slope will be leveled and groomed. A team of technical committee led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) director carried out a final survey of the spot on Thursday. Taking advantage of the lockdown when Solang valley is missing the tourist crowd, the work will start in a few days. ABVIMAS director Col Neeraj Rana said the work on slope will begin in 2-3 days. “Slope is being developed keeping in view the international standards. Work will continue day and night and will finish within two weeks. The ground survey was conducted in presence of technical team on Thursday. The existing slope is about 340m long which will now become 470m-long. Come winter season and the snow-laden slope will be in a new look,” he said. At present Himachal has two skiing slopes – one at Solang and other at Narkanda. Both slopes are in dilapidated condition in absence of basic infrastructure. The natural slopes are short in length and not work hosting international races. Local ski clubs with help of government have hosted many state and national level tournaments on the slopes but failed to get approval to host international events. Rana said Solang can now host international tournaments from this year onward. “Solang slopes get very heavy snowfall. Slopes are well connected by road and ABVIMAS has its hostel at Solang. The area has many hotels. All conditions are favourable for world-class skiing. The short slope was the main hurdle. Some other technical issues of the slopes will be improved one by
Himachal can now host international skiing and snowboarding championships as Solang slopes near Manali are being developed to meet all the requirements of international standards. The length of the existing slope is being increased by over 130m. The surface of the slope will be leveled and groomed. A team of technical committee led by Atal
No raft is floating on the rivers, skies have no paragliders, the rugged terrains are missing the ATVs, challenging Himalayan trails have no hikers and nobody is skiing down the backcountry slopes in Himachal. With tourism around the world coming to a standstill, the adventure tourism industry of the state has also been hit hard, leaving thousands jobless. Not just the hoteliers, thousands of people operating adventure tourism have been left jobless by the Covid-19. Himachal has emerged as a top adventure tourism hub of the world where adventure enthusiasts from around the world come for all kind of activities. Paragliding, rafting, mountaineering, skiing, heli-skiing, ATV rides and almost every adventure activity is available in the state. As tourism is expected to take many more months to come back on the track, thousands of adventure activity operators are worrying for their future. “All the industries have been hit by the Covid-19 but tourism industry has suffered the most. The agriculture, horticulture, construction, trades and all industries are returning to normalcy one by one. But the tourism will take a long time to resume. All the adventure activities too have come to a grinding halt. Thousands have lost their jobs. Now everybody is looking at government for relief,” Adventure Tour Operators Association president Roshan Lal said. Adventure tourism in Himachal has become a multi-crore industry that runs almost round the year except for monsoon season. It has become one of the largest employers in the state. May and June are the peak season when lakhs of tourists try hand at various activities in the state especially in Kullu, Shimla, Kangra and Chamba districts. The state has all the activities except for bungee jumping. The government was to start setting up world’s highest bungee jumping near Marhi at altitude of about 11,000ft
No raft is floating on the rivers, skies have no paragliders, the rugged terrains are missing the ATVs, challenging Himalayan trails have no hikers and nobody is skiing down the backcountry slopes in Himachal. With tourism around the world coming to a standstill, the adventure tourism industry of the state has also been hit hard,
The tourist town of Manali will soon get an ice hockey stadium that will be built for Rs 17cr by a company from the Netherlands. The stadium and the ice rink will be built as per international standards. Youth services and sports minister Govind Singh Thakur said on Tuesday that an MoU has been signed with a Netherlands based company and the work will start very soon. The huge stadium will be built in Manali which is otherwise famous for skiing and snowboarding. After the ice skating rink of Shimla and ice hockey rink of Spiti, it will be the third ice rink of the state. But, unlike other ice skating and hockey rinks of the country, this rink will be designed and built according to international standards so that international events could be organized here in the future. “This will be first such stadium of the country. Winter sports infrastructure is being strengthened in Manali. Besides skiing slopes, now we shall have a beautiful ice hockey rink where our children will rehearse and will prepare for national and international competitions. We can even host international events in the future. The stadium will also help in boosting the winter tourism,” Govind Thakur said. कुल्लू मनाली में नीदरलैंड की कंपनी इंटरनेशनल आईस हॉकी स्टेडियम बनाने जा रही है जिसके लिए कंपनी ने 17 करोड़ रूपये का एमओयू प्रदेश सरकार के साथ साईन किया है।@jairamthakurbjp सरकार का उद्देश्य देश व प्रदेश के खिलाड़ियों को खेल में अपनी प्रतिभा निखारने के लिए यह एक सराहनीय कदम है। pic.twitter.com/FSBOCY7jQM — Govind Singh Thakur (@govind4betterHP) December 24, 2019 The government is searching for the land for the project. The company will coordinate with Manali based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports for technical and other support. Once complete, the stadium is likely
The tourist town of Manali will soon get an ice hockey stadium that will be built for Rs 17cr by a company from the Netherlands. The stadium and the ice rink will be built as per international standards. Youth services and sports minister Govind Singh Thakur said on Tuesday that an MoU has been signed
An ice hockey rink is ready to host winter sport enthusiasts at an altitude of 12,000ft from sea level in the Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh. The 50mX35m rink has been built near Kaza by Spiti administration to introduce this new sport to the people of the state. Officials believe this can be the highest ice hockey rink of the country as Kaza is higher than Leh.Spiti being coldest inhabitable place of Himachal, the ice in the rink has been prepared with the help of Mother Nature as all water sources get freeze here between December and March. All the enthusiasts can enjoy this sports soon in future but currently officials are planning to train some children professionally. Spiti being coldest inhabitable place of Himachal, the ice in the rink has been prepared with the help of Mother Nature as all water sources get freeze here between December and March. All the enthusiasts can enjoy this sports soon in future but currently officials are planning to train some children professionally. The youth services and sports department will conduct the very first 10-day-long ice hockey training programme for children from December 20. The students of Kaza would be encouraged to adopt ice hockey as their winter sport both professionally and for hobby.In the first batch, 40 students from Spiti and five students from Lahaul have been shortlisted for the training programme. Besides this, all the physical education teachers of the valley will be trained in this sport so that they further train the students. In the first batch, 40 students from Spiti and five students from Lahaul have been shortlisted for the training programme. Besides this, all the physical education teachers of the valley will be trained in this sport so that they further train the students. Three national athletes from
An ice hockey rink is ready to host winter sport enthusiasts at an altitude of 12,000ft from sea level in the Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh. The 50mX35m rink has been built near Kaza by Spiti administration to introduce this new sport to the people of the state. Officials believe this can be the highest
Paragliding is as safe as you make it. The safety checks, quality of equipment, preparedness, wind, air pressure and visibility are the main factors that decide how safe the flight would be. With a large number of paragliding sites came up in recent years, Himachal has emerged as the top destination for paragliding in the country. With nearly a lakh tourist trying hand at (tandem) paragliding, Kullu-Manali tops the list in terms of number. And the Kullu district is also topping the list of most fatal paragliding accidents. Five persons have died in four accidents this year only while many have sustained injuries. Human error is the main reason behind maximum accidents. Tourists generally go for a tandem flight but nobody asks pilots for their license, registration and quality of the equipment. In many accidents, pilots were found to be flying without a valid license and registration with the tourism department. The pilots, who always remain in hurry to finish the flight to catch another customer, never brief the dos and don’ts to the customers who always remain in suspense that what to do next. Almost 100 per cent of the clients here are tourists. On Monday, a tourist from Chennai was killed in similar accident where tourist slipped off the safety harness and fell on the ground from altitude of hundreds of feet near Falayan in Kullu. He died on the spot. The matter, according to police, appeared to be negligence in safety check. Similar incident had happened in May 2015 when a Mumbai tourist had died of harness failure at Solang valley. Falayan, Solang, Majhach, Diyar and Kharahal are the main paragliding spots in Kullu district where thousands of tourists enjoy joy-rides. The most operators at these sites are not following the proper safety procedures. While some are
Paragliding is as safe as you make it. The safety checks, quality of equipment, preparedness, wind, air pressure and visibility are the main factors that decide how safe the flight would be. With a large number of paragliding sites came up in recent years, Himachal has emerged as the top destination for paragliding in the
A group of 13 adventure sports instructors has set a world record by rafting the Beas from close to its origin till its end point in Himachal Pradesh in four days. The feat was achieved by rafting day and night. Two rafts and three kayaks were used in the expedition. All the participants were the instructors from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS), Manali, led by director of the institute Colonel Neeraj Rana, who wanted to prove their mettle in the adventure sport besides popularizing water sports in Himachal. The expedition starts from Manali on October 23 and ended near Pong Dam in Kangra. Formal announcement of the record would be made by Limca Book of Records in a few days after analyzing the video footage and other records. “This was much difficult than we had imagined. I am extremely happy that my team has made it to the record books by being first to raft from Manali to Dehra in four days,” Col Rana said. He added that the total distance calculated by the expedition was 210km. “None of us had knowledge about the river flow, depth, falls, speed and entire geography. It was full of adventure and two days we had to raft in night time – one day till 2:30am as well – to achieve the deadline of four days.” Rana added that contrary to their belief that the stretch between Manali and Kullu has the most challenging rapids, the stretch between Mandi and Sandol had the grade-4 and grade-5 rapids. He further added that with the fast flow, high rapids and tight gorge, this area challenged them where it was difficult to maneuver the rafts. As a large number of tributaries meet the Beas, its water level keeps increasing. While water was
A group of 13 adventure sports instructors has set a world record by rafting the Beas from close to its origin till its end point in Himachal Pradesh in four days. The feat was achieved by rafting day and night. Two rafts and three kayaks were used in the expedition. All the participants were the
As Himachal is preparing to host Asian Rafting Championships next year, a 13 member team of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) has set out on a 230km-long rafting expedition on Beas on Wednesday. Aiming for a world record, the team will raft across the length of the Beas river in Himachal from Manali to Dehra in Kangra. Led by ABVIMAS director Col Neeraj Rana, the expedition was flagged off by forest, transport, sports and youth services minister Govind Singh Thakur from Manali. The minister himself experienced the thrill of rafting in wild rapids of Beas in first 15km stretch. “The team has challenge to complete the expedition in four days. Nobody did rafting in majority of the stretch of Beas till date. They are confident to set a world record. This will popularize water sports in Himachal. They are using two rafts and three kayaks,” Thakur said. The sports minister informed that World Rafting Federation has given its nod to Himachal for hosting Asian Rafting Championships in 2020. “We shall leave no stone unturned in smooth conduct of the championship on the Beas. This will open doors for Himachal to host World Rafting Championship. Our 25 rafters are going to Serbia to get advanced training,” he added. Rafting is forbidden for tourists in some stretches of Beas where rapids are high and water flow is fast. There are some stretches where water is deep but water flow is almost still. Shallow water and sharp edged rocks are another challenge. Col Neeraj Rana said the boys are full of enthusiasm and want to accomplish the task as soon as possible. “We have to reach Dehra bridge on October 26. We are taking care of our safety. We will be lifting our rafts and kayaks to the
As Himachal is preparing to host Asian Rafting Championships next year, a 13 member team of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) has set out on a 230km-long rafting expedition on Beas on Wednesday. Aiming for a world record, the team will raft across the length of the Beas river in
A 13-member team of adventure enthusiasts from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS), Manali, will attempt to set a world record this month by scaling the length of the Beas river riding two rafts and three kayaks. ABVIMAS instructors under the leadership of director of the institute will start the arduous journey from Manali on October 23. The challenge is to reach Dehra in Kangra district in four days after covering distance of about 230km. So far nobody has attempted to do this. Limca Book of Records officials will closely observe the expedition. If successful, it will be a world record. The river is wild and fast with high rapids and sharp boulder between Manali and Raison, while water can be shallow and slow at some places. The Beas river has two reservoirs – one at Larji and another near Pandoh in Mandi where rafts and kayaks will be lifted manually to the other side of the dam from where the members will start rowing their rafts. The team did a recce of the Beas and discovered that they will have to lift the rafts and kayaks for 5km beyond Larji dam as the stretch has very shallow water due to all waters being diverted through reservoir to generate electricity. Most stretches of Beas are dangerous for rafting and only a few stretches have been approved by government where tourists enjoy rafting. ABVIMAS director Colonel Neeraj Rana said each raft will have five rafters while three kayakers will give them the company. “The kayaks will ensure the safety of the rafters. Our target is to reach Dehra bridge on October 26. If we feel that we are unable to cover the distance on time, we shall travel in night time too. It’s a big challenge but
A 13-member team of adventure enthusiasts from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS), Manali, will attempt to set a world record this month by scaling the length of the Beas river riding two rafts and three kayaks. ABVIMAS instructors under the leadership of director of the institute will start the arduous
World’s highest bungee jumping site at an altitude of about 10,500ft will come up at steep but beautiful gorge near Marhi in Manali very soon. In an effort to attract more tourists to Manali, the government is developing different adventure activities which are either longest, tallest or are located at the highest altitude in the world. After making a 350m-long sky-cycling track at Gulaba, which is the highest such track of the world at an altitude of 9,300ft, the proposed bungee jumping site is at staggering 10,500ft from sea level. As the site has been finalized, the work on the project will start very soon. Manali based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) will supervise the construction work. ABVIMAS director Col Neeraj Rana said the jumping platform will be 182m (596ft) high from the ground which is highest in Asia. “No country in the world has bungee jumping site at this altitude. We shall fit four 32mm metal cables across the gorge and a motorized cage will take the jumper to the jumping site. The whole project is based on a latest technique which has been adopted recently by the New Zealand and the USA,” he said. He added that the purpose of setting up of longest or highest adventure activities at highest altitude in the world is to make them extreme and catchy. “We want to make Manali an adventure sports destination for the world. We are introducing all popular activities and are brining latest techniques. We are taking care of the safety and environment as well.” This will be the first and the only bungee jumping of Himachal while second in North India. While all other adventure activities are available in Kullu-Manali, the absence of bungee jumping was upsetting the adventure enthusiasts. The high
World’s highest bungee jumping site at an altitude of about 10,500ft will come up at steep but beautiful gorge near Marhi in Manali very soon. In an effort to attract more tourists to Manali, the government is developing different adventure activities which are either longest, tallest or are located at the highest altitude in the
With an aim to provide tourists with a unique and eco-friendly adventure sports experience, Himachal government has established a “sky cycling” park at an altitude of 9,300ft at Gulaba, just below Rohtang pass. Officials believe tourists will make a beeline to experience cycling at the park which is perhaps the world’s highest sky-cycling park at such an altitude. Tourists would be able to run the bicycle on 350m-long metal cable while getting a 360 degree view of Rohtang pass, snow-clad Dhauladhar, and Pir Panjal range and Beas river. To ensure maximum safety of the visitors, the activity is being developed under the supervision of Manali based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS). The government is developing a “Prakriti Vatika” at Gulaba where forest department is spending lakhs of rupees. The vatika (garden) spread over a vast area has hundreds of trees of different species including pine, deodar, maple and Himalayan horse chestnut. Forest department is planting more species to make the garden unique and beautiful. The sky-cycling trek is being developed inside the prakriti vatika. ABVIMAS director Col Neeraj Rana on Thursday did a successful trial of sky cycling here along with the divisional forest officer Dr Neeraj Chadha. The cycling cable at some points is over 70f above the ground. Some local youth are being trained to operate this activity by the institute. The activity is expected to open for tourists by October. Officials said a 450m-long zip line, all-terrain vehicle (ATV) trek, kids play area, picnic area, walking trail, yoga and meditation area, a waterfall, shopping area, camping site, snow games, rappelling, toilets and many other activities are also being developed inside the prakriti vatika. While some activities will be operated in winter season during snowfall, others can be enjoyed in rest of the
With an aim to provide tourists with a unique and eco-friendly adventure sports experience, Himachal government has established a “sky cycling” park at an altitude of 9,300ft at Gulaba, just below Rohtang pass. Officials believe tourists will make a beeline to experience cycling at the park which is perhaps the world’s highest sky-cycling park at
