Thanks to snow gun, Solang will have snow five months a year

Manali: Many come to Himachal Pradesh to witness their first snowfall. But thanks to global warming, climate have become unpredictable. Four enterprising youngsters from Solang — Sunil Thakur, Hira Lal, Gokul Thakur and Mohan — have decided to take weather into their hands and ensure snowfall everyday for five months in winters. They have imported a snow-making machine, popularly called snow gun, from Europe. And on Friday, Himachal woke up to 30cm of machine-made snow in a small patch of land in Solang valley where the snow gun is being tested.

Although on the inaugural day, tourists were let into the “snow park” for free, where they did skiing and snow boarding, the young entrepreneurs are planning to charge entry fee from visitors soon.

It took nearly two weeks to install the snow gun, which cost them nearly Rs 40 lakh, said the youngsters. “The experiment has been successful. The machine is very expensive. We were earlier worried if it will work properly or not. But the machine is making perfect snow. Tourists do not have to depend on weather for natural snowfall, they can see snow here from November till March when temperature dips below freezing point. The best thing is that the whole technology is 100% eco-friendly,” said Sunil Thakur.

“The powerful fans of the machine breaks water into superfine droplets, which start floating in air and cool climate turns them into ice, which eventually falls on ground in the form of natural snow,” explained Hira Lal, Gokul Thakur and Mohan. The technology is not new in Europe and many ski resorts use snow guns to make snow. The local skiers have been demanding the government to install snow guns on the slopes for many years now.

Roshan Thakur, former secretary general of Winter Games Federation of India, helped the youngsters in importing the machine. “The snow quality is great. It’s great that the technology has eventually reached Himachal. I am in talk with our sports minister so that more such machines are installed on our skiing slopes. This way our skiers can practice skiing everyday in winters. And we can host winter sports competitions anytime without depending on weather,” he said.