Industrial corridor to get $50 billion investment

Outlining the key features of a massive and ambitious infrastructure project, the government today announced that the proposed 1,483 km long Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor would be built in seven years. To be built with Japanese assistance, the corridor is expected to see investments worth $50 billion. Work is expected to commence from January 2008. The corridor will run along both sides of the Delhi-Mumbai dedicated railway freight corridor, which is currently being built by the Ministry of Railways.

Announcing the details at a meeting attended by Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and his Japanese counterpart Akira Amari, industry secretary Ajay Dua said the quantum of Japanese funding in the industrial corridor is being negotiated currently. "It is likely to constitute a major portion of the project", he said.

The detailed project report on the industrial corridor project will be ready by the year-end and work would commence soon after. Japan is already the largest contributor of overseas development assistance to India and this project will boost the economic ties between the two countries further.

Plans for the corridor were drawn up during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Japan late last year.

"The draft concept paper on the project will be ready by April 25 and a presentation on the status of the project report will be made to the Indian and Japanese Prime Ministers, during the latter's visit to India in September this year," Dua added.

The industrial corridor will run across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharahstra and the project influence area is likely to be 14 per cent of the total land area of the country, which is around 4,16,000 sq km. "Nearly 180 million people live in the area, where the industrial corridor is scheduled to come up," Dua said.

Mindful of the controversy over land acquisition, Kamal Nath was quick to point out that no land would be acquired for the industrial corridor. "The companies which come to set up units in the corridor will have to look for land and procure it themselves. But land should not be a problem because the corridor is spread over a large area. Some Japanese companies are already interested in it," Nath said.

The corridor would stretch up to 150 km on either side of the Delhi- Mumbai railway freight line. It will be developed for focused industrial growth, which will include special economic zones, industrial areas, logistics parks, ports and airports, as well as complementary infrastructure like town ships. A special purpose vehicle called the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) will be set up to execute the project.

The project involves upgradation of all existing industrial clusters in the corridor, creation of 10 to 12 new industrial zones, upgrading five to six airports, setting up of ten logistics parks, creating 4,000 mw of power generation facility as well as two greenfield ports in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The government expects that within five years of the completion of the corridor, employment growth would increase by 15 per cent, industrial output by 28 per cent and exports by 38 per cent per annum.