Union Minister of Steel Ram Vilas Paswan laid the foundation stone of both the units -- one in Dularia village (120 km from Bhopal) of Hoshangabad district and the other in the Bandka industrial area of Ujjain district.
Paswan laid the foundation stone of the Ujjain plant on Friday and said the public sector major would invest Rs 100 crore in the unit. SAIL will invest Rs 150 crore in Hoshangabad unit. Both the units will be completed by 2009 and will offer at least 30 per cent of the jobs to local people.
To offer maximum facilities to the unit, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also awarded 'C' category status to Hoshangabad and Ujjain districts. At present the districts fall in the 'B' category.
He also announced Hoshangabad would now be named Narmadapur and Dularia village will be a tehsil.
The commercial units of minimum Rs 10 crore investment in 'C' category districts have been given privileged for tax exemptions to an extent of 75% for a period of 10 years in form of financial assistance, ie, the commercial units will pay tax but it can be reclaimed.
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In addition stamp duty exemption and an amount of maximum Rs 15 lakh is also offered for commercial units of Rs 10 crore.
Besides land is also available for companies making mega investment (Rs 25 crore or more) at concessionary rates.
Oaswan also announced to launch a new scheme to offer free health facilities to the poor. The Central government will launch the scheme soon and will issue 'Health Cards' against which hospitals will offer free medical facilities for the poor. The state governments are asked to contribute 25% to the scheme. The scheme will cover 1,20,000 poor initially and will be launched nationwide later.