Haryana govt approves projects worth Rs 7,000 cr

Haryana, which is emerging as "the investment destination", has signed 136 industrial entrepreneur memorandums (IEMs) and letters of intents (LoIs) Rs 1,044 crore worth of investments in the last nine months. The state government had already approved proposals worth Rs 7,000 crore for setting up various units by March 2005.

This was stated by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the "Invest Haryana Summit", organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) here today.

"Operational work on several of these units has already started," Hooda said. The state was aiming at attracting additional investment proposals worth Rs 2,000 crore in near future, he said and added "for this the necessary ground work is already being done."

According to the chief minister, when crystallised these investments will create over 400,000 jobs in the industrial belt of Haryana, which includes Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panipat.

"Majority of these new investments are likely in the automobile, textiles, petrochemicals, information technology, ITeS and engineering sectors," Hooda said.

The state government is setting up a light engineering goods cluster in Faridabad at a cost of Rs 80 crore, an automobile accessories cluster at Gurgaon at a cost of Rs 67 crore and a textile cluster at Panipat with an investment of Rs 55 crore.

Underlining the importance of the state, Hooda said Haryana accounted for production of over 50 per cent of passenger cars, 50 per cent of motorcycles and 25 per cent of tractors manufactured in the country. One out of every four bicycle and around 25 per cent of sanitaryware production was being done in the state, he added.

A large number of big corporates had already set up their facilities and several multinationals were in talks with the state government to make investments, Hooda said.

On the new areas of investment, he said the state government was trying to promote food processing and packaging industry.

To achieve this goal, the state government was setting up a national institute of food technology, entrepreneurship and management (NIFTEM) at a cost of Rs 350 crore, the chief minister said. Over 100 acres of land had been identified for the institute in Kundli, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Japanese Ambassador to India Yasukuni Enoki said Japan had identified Haryana as an ideal place for industrial investment.

"Japan plans to pour in a large capital in the next years as the state provides for healthy industrial environment," he said.