Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asked the Niti Aayog to prepare a report mapping all the industrial activities such as corridors, logistics parks and pharma hubs so that they can be incorporated under the PM Gati Shakti initiative of the government. She also suggested to the shipping ministry to look at all the sea ports in the country and their linkages with industrial corridors.
These suggestions were part of seven action points elaborated by the minister during the first meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority for the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme.
“I would like the NITI Aayog to map all this (industrial corridors, freight corridors, defence corridors, manufacturing zones, textile parks, logistics parks, medical and pharma hubs). Map it all and tell us where you see a possibility for bringing them under the PM Gati Shakti,” she said.
“I find many of them still lying loose and unconnected. Mapping it up will probably give a better idea of how they can all come into this scheme of things,” she added.
The minister asked the Aayog to prepare the report by October-end.
The PM Gati Shakti is a digital platform which aims at promoting integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
Niti Aayog, she said, should undertake a quick study because a lot of activities are happening and all of them have to come under the umbrella of PM Gati Shakti programme.
The finance minister further suggested to her commerce counterpart Piyush Goyal to undertake a review of three industrial corridors of south India — Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor, Bengaluru Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and Vizag Chennai Industrial Corridor and their nodes.
“For some some reasons…the three corridors coming from the south have not been dealt with an elaborate fashion,” Sitharaman added.
She also sought a report on the Uttarakhand stretch of the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor.
The minister suggested holding the next meeting of the authority by mid-November to review the progress.
The Government of India is developing various industrial corridor projects as part of the National Industrial Corridor Programme which is aimed at developing greenfield industrial smart cities which can compete with the best manufacturing and investment destinations in the world.
The objectives include expanding industrial output and increasing employment opportunities.
The National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC), earlier the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC), undertakes project development activities and acts as an intermediary for development and establishment of smart and self-sustainable industrial nodes.
For the implementation of the projects, states identify and contribute land for development of the identified nodes. To attract investment in the global value chain, provision of plug-and-play facilities is a pre-requisite.
The Centre has approved the financial and institutional structure with a budgetary support of Rs 17,500 crore for the development of industrial cities.
In December 2020, the government approved development of 11 industrial corridors spanning 32 projects in four phases based on the availability of land, preparedness and multi-modal connectivity infrastructure.
The meeting was attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Railways and Telecommunications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery, chief ministers of different states including Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, besides state industries ministers and senior officials.
Pushing evolving new technologies such as advanced cell chemistry batteries and green hydrogen would be the future. India will have to be the first country in the world to industrialise without the need to carbonise. This is not a challenge. Rather, it is a massive opportunity. Niti must become the ambassador of technological disruption in India.