In a move to bring down the accumulated losses of the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), the government has given a package of over Rs 915 crore to the sole state-run power distribution company.

The accumulated losses of the UPCL stood at Rs 1,948.22 crore till the year 2010-11, the auditing for which has been completed. The annual losses of the UPCL for the same year were Rs 204.46 crore.

The Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) group and Volkswagen—the two auto major groups—have evinced interests in setting up new manufacturing facilities in Uttarakhand, claimed a government official from the hill state.

“We have received two proposals from the two auto companies (M&M and Volkswagen) for setting up new manufacturing facilities in the hill state,” said the official. The state-owned State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (Sidcul), which is the nodal agency for industrialisation in the hill state, has promised the two companies it can provide land at Sitarganj where it is planning to develop a new industrial estate.

A first of its kind workshop on pollution control action plan for bio-medical waste management in Haridwar city was organised by the Pollution Control Research Institute (PCRI).