In a bid to develop world-class economic hubs in Gujarat, the state government has set its focus on infrastructure development, and is developing additional port capacities for marine trade, special investment regions (SIRs) and manufacturing as well as logistics parks and services.
With a coastline of over 1,600 km — longest among all states in the country — Gujarat has over 40 non-major ports adding to the economic prosperity of the state. According to a report of the Union ministry of road transport and highways — An Update on Indian Port Sector — Gujarat accounted for 73.7 per cent (or 259 million tonnes) of the 351.5 million tonnes of traffic handled by non-major ports in India in 2011-12.
The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), which monitors non-major ports, aims to more than double cargo handling capacities over the next three to four years. It is expected that after the doubling of cargo handling capacity, Gujarat will be able to handle more than 40 per cent of the country’s cargo traffic.
“By 2015-16, GMB ports will have traffic handling capacity of more than 500 million tonnes per annum, and will cross 1,000 MTPA by 2020,” GMB Chairman Pankaj Kumar said. Private port operators including Adani, Essar and APM Terminals Pipavav have a combined installed capacity of over 100 MTPA.
At least eight greenfield ports (private and GMB ports) are being planned along the state coastline, while ‘port-cities’ will come up at Mundra and Pipavav ports. For dry ports and multi-modal logistics parks, government has identified five locations.
Also, Gujarat is the only state in India to have two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals — at Hazira (Shell India, Total) and Dahej (Petronet LNG). One more LNG terminal is at the planning stage at Mundra (jointly by Adani Group and state-owned GSPC Gas Company Ltd).
LNG terminals have improved the availability of imported gas for industries not only in Gujarat but nationally. The state government-owned GSPC has implemented city gas distribution (CGD) networks at about 190 locations, including cities, towns and villages. This network supplies 4 million metric standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD) of gas to over 300,965 households, 120 CNG stations, 1,068 commercial and 1,443 industrial consumers in the state.
The gas distribution business has also attracted private sector players like Adani Gas and Gujarat Gas Company Limited. Interestingly, Gujarat is the first state in India to attempt a cooperative model for CGD. Anand-based Charotar Gas Sahakari Mandali Ltd is a cooperative gas distribution company, whose annual revenues of over Rs 81 crore come from selling gas to more than 15,000 domestic, 445 commercial, 130 industrial customers and educational institutes.
“Gujarat’s growth is quite impressive. The first level of basic development has already been achieved. Now the aim should be the second level of development, where it competes with international companies. The challenge is to provide a higher quality of life encompassing all aspects of infrastructure in Gujarat,” said R K Jha, director, Gujarat International Financial Tech-City — an ambitious project of the Gujarat government to attract IT and financial services firms.
In order to strengthen its presence in the IT and financial services space, the state aims to set up a multi-services special economic zone (SEZ) under GIFT City near Gandhinagar. GIFT is targeting a 6-8 per cent share of the financial services potential in India and plans to create about 500,000 direct jobs and an equal number of indirect jobs.
Further, the Central government plans to develop a Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) between Dadri (in Haryana) and JNPT Mumbai, of which 38 per cent part passes through Gujarat. Also, 150 km of the area along the DFC will be developed as the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
Along the DMIC, the state government has planned five special investment regions (SIRs) to attract large-sized investments. The Gujarat Special Investment Regions Act 2009 was enacted to make these SIRs global industrial hubs with superior infrastructure. So far, five SIRs have been notified on a combined area of over 1,800 sq km.
