| The government had recently announced that two SEZs will be carved out in the state, one each at Navi Mumbai and Nagpur. The area adjoining the Butibori five-star industrial estate is a natural choice and the industry feels the new textile park will be included in the SEZ as and when it comes up. |
| An apparel park and a weavers' park are also being developed alongside the textile complex. The development is taking place under the central government's cluster development scheme for textile units. The MIDC has earmarked 69 plots measuring upwards of 1,000 square metres for the textile park. |
| The Butibori industrial area has seen a direct investment of Rs 3,000 crore till now, with the biggest chunk of around Rs 1,800 crore coming from Indo Rama Synthetics (India). Additional units with investment of Rs 1,220 crore are also coming up and most of the new investment is in steel and textile units. |
| The industry has greeted the announcement of the centre acceding to the Maharashtra government's proposal of setting up the SEZ with cautious optimism. |
| Maharashtra textile minister Satish Chaturvedi had made the announcement at Mumbai recently. The Centre, he had said, had given clearance to set up two SEZs in Dronagiri in Navi Mumbai and at Nagpur near the airport. |
| Several industry organisations such as the Vidarbha's Economic Development Council and Vidarbha Industries Association besides noted industrialist, O P Lohia have been pushing for the SEZ project for a number of years now. |
| The Dronagiri proposal came up much later than that for the SEZ at Nagpur and many feel that politicos educated themselves on the advantages of having an SEZ from presentations made here and then hijacked the concept to implement it near Mumbai. |
| The industry, while welcoming the announcement, hoped that the state would step up its efforts in getting the project off the ground. |
| Founder president VED, Govind Daga, said the SEZ could prove to be a major "pick-up" for the entire region and if the government plays its cards well it could see an investment of Rs 10,000 crore coming in the foreseeable future. |
| "Along with the proposed air cargo hub, this is a huge opportunity for the economic upturn of the region," he said. |
| Daga said the state's seriousness would be demonstrated when enough funds are provided for land acquisition and dates are given for allotment of plots at the SEZ. "Nagpur can attract international business and grow fabulously," he said. |
| President, VIA, Mohan Agrawal welcomed the announcement and said that the VIA had dogged pursued the issue with a number of politicians. |
| "We had convinced them of the viability of the project and even got assurances from several chief ministers and the then Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha about the project," he said. Agrawal felt that there was no limit to the investment an SEZ based near Nagpur could attract. |
| "We are talking of thousands of crores and you can imagine the employment opportunities this would throw up," he maintained. |
| Entrepreneur and former vice-president of VED, Manoj Shah, who was among the first to promote the concept of an air cargo hub through his organisation, said that the SEZ could offer direct and indirect employment to over 1.5 lakh people. |
| "In the first three or four years the employment potential is of the order of 40,000. We had done a study on this and strongly believe that the time for Nagpur has come," he said from Delhi. |
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