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Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has set an ambitious deadline of March 31 to bring mega industrial proposals for investments into the state. He said this as he completed a year in office.
"My deadline for bringing big industrial proposals is March 31. You will be surprised when these proposals start coming to our state," said Bahuguna, without divulging much on the proposals.
Bahuguna was replying to a question on the steps his government has initiated to bring improvement in the industrial and power sectors in the state. According to an official report, the anticipated industrial growth was hovering around eight-nine per cent in the year 2012-13, with big industrial houses not showing much interest in the hill state.
Bahuguna also accused the previous BJP government for the downtrend in the industrial and power sectors. "The previous BJP government was responsible for the downtrend in power and industrial sectors. They (BJP leaders) even let go the Nano car project from our state to Gujarat," said Bahuguna.
During the past seven years, the rate of industrial growth has been rapidly falling after touching a peak of 27 per cent in 2005-06. Industrialists attributed this to the expiry of the hill-based tax incentives and bleak power scenario in the state.
On the power sector, Bahuguna said he was trying his best to start new projects such as the 300-Mw Lakhwar and 120-Mw Vyasi hydel projects.
Bahuguna also released a book on the performance of his government, which stated that nearly 78 industrialists were allotted 48.97 acres of land by the state Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (Sidcul) with investments of Rs 430.82 crore. This brought a revenue collection of Rs 126.55 crore to the state.
Bahuguna also said for giving impetus to the industrial growth, his government has also launched a mega industrial scheme where incentives would be provided to the industry on the case by case basis.
