Odisha's GO-SWIFT portal gets 500 proposals within a year of roll-out

Latest proposal comes from Gurugram-based firm for investing Rs 3.5 bn in 130,000-tonne glass container unit at Cuttack, with employment for 1,200 people

The Government of Odisha Single Window for Investor Facilitation and Tracking (GO-SWIFT) portal has got 500 investment proposals in just a year of its roll-out.

The one-stop portal that tracks the complete life cycle of an investment, received its 500th proposal from Gurugram-based sanitary products manufacturer. The unnamed company has proposed to invest Rs 3.5 billion to set up a manufacturing unit for glass containers at Cuttack with an annual capacity of 130,000 tonnes. The project has potential to generate direct and indirect employment for 1,200 people.

Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary (industries) said, “It is encouraging to note that within a short span of one year, GO-SWIFT has received the 500th investment proposal. Due to significant ease of application and expeditious approval process, there has been a considerable increase in the number of investors wanting to set up their units in Odisha. The Make-in-Odisha Conclave 2018 has given further impetus to the flow of investment proposals. We will continue to raise the bar for ease of doing business and are focused on speedy implementation of projects on ground.”

Some of the leading companies whose proposals were received and approved by State Level Single Window Clearance Authority include Manpasand Beverages, ITC Foods, Apar Industries Ltd, Sri Malani Foams (a company from the house of Century brand of mattresses), Vedanta, JSW Cement, Gokul Agro and Jindal Aluminum among others.

GO-SWIFT provides all of the information and clearances that investors tend to require in a time-bound, hassle-free, paperless and transparent manner. Entirely online, the launch of GO-SWIFT has improved the efficiency of the approval process for both new and existing industries across 32 services from 15 state  departments. 

A first-of-its-kind in the country, GO-SWIFT provides information on business reforms and policy initiatives. The investor dashboard on the portal allows users to track the real-time status of their application and get alerts via SMS and email. Another important feature is its Query Management System that lets users raise queries within a week of their submission. GO-SWIFT also has a Department Dashboard for senior government officials to use and track the industrial units in the State. Along with its other features, GO-SWIFT has also seamlessly integrated all other existing online systems developed by the Government of Odisha, such as GO PLUS and Automated Post Allotment Application (APAA) for post-land allotment services for industrial units.

The timelines mandated by Odisha Right to Public Services Act (ORTPSA 2012) have been mapped for each service to ensure that all approvals are delivered in a time-bound manner to the investors. The average time for application of services has come down significantly due to GO-SWIFT. For instance, in the case of Directorate of Factories & Boilers, the average time taken for approval is 25 days. This is lower than the timelines mandated by ORTPSA which is 30 days. Similarly, in the case of Directorate of Labour, the average time taken for approval is 22 days which is significantly lower than the 30 days mandated by ORTPSA.