Himachal Pradesh government has cleared a major project of tobacco that is proposed to come up at Hamirpur district. Government has given nod to the West End Tobacco Pvt Ltd to set up a network of bidi units across the home district of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. The company has promised to provide an employment opportunity to about 40,000 workers.

The state government cleared this and eight other new industrial proposals on Saturday here, while it gave its nod to expand 21 existing units. All of them propose to bring in an investment of over Rs 700 crore.

Nitin Lifescience proposes to set up a Rs 24-crore unit near Poanta Sahib in Sirmaur district. While, Eco Polyfibres will set up its polyster unit in western Una district. Virtue Irrigation will spend Rs 17.5 crore on its unit in Baddi.

Pan Asia Bio-Tech will invest Rs 53 crore on its bio-tech unit, while Council Sciences and Maharaja Whiteline will invest Rs 21.75 crore and Rs 8.76 crore respectively in setting up their units.