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The new policy of the state of providing land with pre-approved clearances from all departments has helped the state to garner investments from big corporate players in India who channelised their investments to the other states offering tax incentives in the past few years. Under the pre-approved clearances, the NOC (no objection certificate) as well as clearance from forest, power, pollution and industries departments besides Change of Land Use would be provided to the investor by the Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion.
The state, according to the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, has received 217 applications of investment proposals in the past two years and 168 cases with a proposed investment of Rs 14,660 cr are in the various stages of implementation.
"Over 60% cases have got clearance for construction, about 32% cases are undergoing equipment test clearance and 6% are ready to commence operations", told Badal while handing over the allotment letters to IOC and Kansai Nerolac.
A Rs 900-crore food processing project by the ITC near Kapurthala would be a flagship food processing park and an anchor project for many small players. Cargill is also putting up a cattle feed plant near Bathinda at an investment of Rs 80 crore.
Aditya Birla Group is investing Rs 540 crore in Punjab near Rajpura for its cement brand Ultra Tech Cement that will use the fly ash emanating from L&T thermal power plant in the vicinity.
Talking about the existing units, he told Nahar Spinning Mills is investing Rs 230 crore in Sangrur and Auto player Sonalika is expanding in Hoshiarpur at an investment of Rs 220 crore.
India's second largest paint company M/s Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited has been allotted 35 acres of industrial land in Goindwal Industrial Complex for setting up of water based and powder coating paints with the project cost of around Rs 250 crores. Likewise, the state government has also allotted 30 acres of land at Goindwal Industrial Complex to M/s Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. for setting up of LPG bottling plant with an investment of Rs 115 crores.
Some of the big industry houses in Punjab have started expanding in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand when the tax holiday was offered in year 2003. This was accentuated by the exodus of industry towards Madhya Pradesh when Vardhaman, Nahar Group, Abhishek Industries and SEL manufacturing Limited (all textile players) parked their investment in central India lured by cheap land, labour and power.
The Badal government, keeping an eye on the assembly election slated for early 2017, has started mobilsing big corporate players. The state organised 'Invest Punjab' Summit in 2013 and made it an annual affair.
Badal today informed that a land bank of 600 acres in different parts of the state has been made available for the fresh applicants.
He travelled to Europe last month and is travelling to Korea this Friday to seek investments besides touring the important industrial towns of India in the last two months. He also announced that a big ticket investment from China is in pipeline and the formal announcement would be made soon.
