Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has announced setting up of a high-powered committee for furthering the cause of comprehensive development of the Hazira industrial area.
The proposed committee would have representatives from the state government, industries located in the area and representatives from local villages.
Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation chairman C K Koshi would chair the committee. Surat district collector Manoj Das, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPCL) managing director Jagdish Pandian, representatives of other corporate houses and sarpanches of the 11 villages in the area would be members of this high power committee. According to the chief minister, the committee would become operational soon.
As per the broad parameters of development outlined by Modi, the committee would work out options for the economic, educational, social and environmental upliftment of the Hazira region.
Besides, the committee would also examine the possibility of developing the Hazira sea coast as a major tourist destination.
The development initiatives in the Hazira industrial area, about 20 km south-west of Surat city, took off after the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) set up its gas processing complex in 1986.
Today, the area has over eight major industrial units. The area boasts of an integrated steel mill complex of Essar Steel, a 550 MW Essar Power plant, a sprawling petro chemical complex of Reliance Industries, a heavy engineering plant of Larsen and Toubro, an urea plant of the Krishak Bharti Cooperative (Kribhco), a heavy water plant of the Atomic Power Corporation, a 1200 MW gas-based power plant of National Thermal Power Corporation, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, a LPG bottling plant of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and GAIL
