In a boost to the sagging infrastructure scene in the state, the commerce and industry ministry and the Maharashtra government on Thursday announced construction of two integrated industrial townships at a cost of Rs 8,700 crore over the next seven years.
The twin townships at Dighi in Raigad district and at Shendra Bidkin in Aurangabad will come up as the National Manufacturing Investment Zones (NMIZs) as proposed under the National Manufacturing Policy announced last year, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said. Both the projects are aligned to the ambitious Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). The Shendra project will require an investment of Rs 2,790 crore and the Dighi project will need Rs 5,967 crore, he said.
Sharma and Chavan held a meeting with top officials from the industrial departments on Thursday where details about the projects were discussed.
Conceding that the earlier attempts by the state, which used to attract the maximum industrial growth and investment, notably the MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) townships have been developed in a “haphazard” manner, Chavan stressed that these will be well planned hubs which will be better and will be set up even before the industry moves in.
One of the state’s first private sector ports is being developed at Dighi while Aurangabad is also fast developing into a major industrial belt and already houses auto majors like Skoda.
Chavan said as part of the work around DMIC, it was also decided to have two electricity plants of 1,000 Mw each at Raigad and Pune districts, a multi-modal logistics hub at Talegaon near Pune and an exhibition centre at Aurangabad.
More From This Section
The Centre and state have also decided to form an equal joint venture for the implementation of the projects and it was also decided to form a committee headed by the Maharashtra chief secretary to monitor the progress on the projects on a regular basis, Chavan said.
The Dighi township will require a total of 25,000 hectares, while the one at Shendra will need 8,340 hectares, according to a presentation made during the meeting. In spite of the troubles faced by the industry on the land acquisition front, which has also led some to abandon their plans of setting shop, Chavan sounded confident of meeting the land requirements for the twin projects and added that the acquisition has already begun in the case of Dighi.