Himachal Pradesh cabinet on Monday decided to erect statue of former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the historic Ridge in Shimla and urged the Central government to name Rohtang tunnel as Atal Bihari Vajpayee tunnel.

The Ridge in Shimla presently has the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Dr YS Parmar (founder CM of Himachal).

The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur, passed a condolence resolution on the demise of former PM and Bharat Ratna, Vajpayee and remembered him for his special benevolence for Himachal and its people. The cabinet observed two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul.

An official spokesman here said as a tribute to the great leader, the cabinet decided to construct a memorial in Vajpayee’s memory in Manali in Kullu district.

The spokesman said the cabinet decided to send a proposal to the Union Government to rename Kol Dam Project in the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Besides, it decided to rename the Mukhya Mantri Adarsh Vidya Kendra Scheme launched by the state government as Atal Adarsh Vidya Kendra and Mukhya Mantri Aashirwad Scheme as Atal Aashirwad Scheme.

In the condolence resolution, the cabinet said Vajpayee always considered Himachal Pradesh as his second home and loved to visit the state whenever he got time from his busy schedule.

The resolution said the idea to construct Rohtang tunnel connecting landlocked hinterland Lahaul valley with rest of the world was conceived in 1998 by Vajpayee and the project was announced by him on June 3, 2000. This project is nearing completion and would be the biggest gift of Vajpayee to the state.

The resolution said that it was National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee that the special package for industrial development was announced for Himachal Pradesh in 2003 as result of which industrial investment of thousands of crores of rupees and employment and self-employment opportunities to lakhs of youth of the state was ensured.

The cabinet referred to Pokhran blasts and acknowledged Vajpayee’s contribution in making India a nuclear power, gave him credit for the largest education programme, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan in the country, the Golden Quadrilateral National Highway Project and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana that proved a boon for hilly states like Himachal.