Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chairs 1st meeting of Apex Monitoring Authority of National Industrial Corridor Development Programme.

Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman today chaired the 1st meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority constituted to review the activities of National Industrial Corridor Development programme. The Apex Monitoring Authority comprises of Finance Minister as Chairperson, Minister-in- charge, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Minister of Railways, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Minister of Shipping, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, and Chief Minister(s) of States concerned. Chief Ministers from six states, viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, M.P. Maharashtra and Uttarkhand; Ministers from 7 States viz. Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan besides senior officials from all the states attended the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, Smt. Sitharaman thanked the State Chief Ministers and Ministers for keeping the work going all these years. “What started with about 3-4 states with few nodes today has gone to cover 18 States and the ecosystem for industrial development has taken a different colour and speed as we are seeing a far more liberalized environment. This is a rapid scaling up and as a result there should be a greater cumulative benefit, we should be able to derive,” she said while urging the States to expedite the acquisition of land.

Emphasizing upon the need to ensure optimal utilization of resources, the Finance Minister said that PM’s GatiShakti National Master Plan was expected to bring about greater coherence in all investments in infrastructure projects. She asked the NITI Aayog to map all the different projects such as Industrial Corridors, Freight Corridors, Defence Corridors, NIMZ (National Industrial Manufacturing Zones) PLI-based industry parks, PM-Mitra parks, Medical & Pharma Parks and Logistic Parks to understand the need for bringing them under PM GatiShakti. The finance minister also asked the Shipping Ministry to map out all the sea ports connected to various industrial corridors to see whether there are meaningful linkages. She asked the next meeting of the Monitoring Committee to be convened in November.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles said that there is a need to focus on attracting investors quickly in these Industrial Corridors and asked NICDIT as well as States to have Road Shows to attract businesses. The minister said that the Industrial parks will be regarded as successful only if investment flows in. “We must allot the land fast. The land should be reasonably priced for the industry and we should allow innovative ways such as different lease period, lease premium payment flexibility, rental model, lease cum rent option. Electricity rate is another thing investors look at closely. We need to have affordable and consistent rates. High rates of electricity are a deterrent to the industry,” the minister added. Shri Goyal warned that if the existing parks are not put to good use, then the Centre would not support any new park. The minister also urged the States to ensure affordable accommodation, canteens for workers so that slums don’t come up in industrial parks.

Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, said that rail connectivity has to be an integral part of planning of project nodes and the land acquisition can take into consideration the requirement of railways. He informed that regional railways and hydrogen train are being planned and the infrastructure development should keep this aspect in mind. He also asked the NICDIT to plan for data centers and ducts for laying optical fibre.

Shri Vaishnaw urged the State governments to have dedicated nodes for electronic manufacturing, which he said was highly employment intensive. “There is a huge opportunity for electronic manufacturing. Entire global value chain is shifting away from untrusted partners and India is being seen as a trusted partner. Success of electronic manufacturing in last in India has been watched by the world. From nowhere we have reached 76 billion dollars and it now growing in double digits,” the Minister added.

Shri Anurag Jain, Secretary DPIIT informed that supplementing the efforts of Govt. of India for realizing the manufacturing potential of the country, NICDC is developing Eleven (11) Industrial corridors comprising 32 nodes/projects to be developed in 04 Phases for taking forward the vision set out under PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.

Shri Amrit Lal Meena, Special Secretary (Logistics) and CEO&MD, NICDC, informed that NICDC has meticulously been able to deliver 4 developed futuristic “Smart industrial cities” namely Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) in Gujarat; Shendra Bidkin Industrial Area (SBIA), Aurangabad in Maharashtra; Integrated Industrial Township, Greater Noida (IITGN) in Uttar Pradesh; Integrated Industrial Township, Vikram Udyogpuri (IITVU) in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. He further stated that with the support of Government of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, two new nodes in Krishnapatnam and Tumakuru are moving forward towards implementation. NICDC is also developing Multi Modal Logistics Hubs (MMLH) at Nangal Choudhary in Haryana and at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, Multi Modal Transport Hub (MMTH) is being developed at Boraki in Uttar Pradesh.

Till date 201 plots with 979 acre of land parcels have been allotted to various national/multi-national Industrial units with committed investment of over Rs. 17,500 crore and potential employment of over 23,000. The commercial production has already started in 12 units and nearly 40 companies are setting up factories. Over 5400 acre developed land is available for immediate allotment for various uses like industrial, commercial, residential, institutional etc. Under the Industrial Corridor Programme, complete hand holding support is being provided to the plot allottees till they go into commercial production.

NICDC Limited is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under the Administrative Control of DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce & Industry which carries out project development activities and coordinates the implementation of the various Industrial Corridor projects under ‘National Industrial Corridor Programme’. Under this programme, NICDC has 4 greenfield smart cities namely Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) in Gujarat; Shendra Bidkin Industrial Area (SBIA), Aurangabad in Maharashtra; Integrated Industrial Township, Greater Noida (IITGN) in Uttar Pradesh; Integrated Industries.