NEW DELHI - Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman 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 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.
