Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting his first budget in Parliament today, announced that a National Industrial Corridor Authority, with its headquarter in Pune, is being set-up with an amount of Rs. 100 crore, to coordinate the development of industrial corridors with smart cities linked to transport connectivity.
He also announced that the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Master Planning will be completed expeditiously for the establishment of Industrial Smart cities in seven states in this corridor.
Jaitley said that the Master planning of three new smart cities in the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor region, viz., Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tumkur in Karnataka will also be completed. The perspective plan for the Bengaluru Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC) and Vizag-Chennai corridor would be completed with the provision for 20 new industrial clusters.
He added that Kakinada, its adjoining areas and the port will be developed as the key drivers of economic growth in Andhra Pradesh with a special focus on hardware manufacturing.
Jaitley urged the states to play an active role in export promotion by providing good infrastructure and full facilitation. He proposed to establish an Export Promotion Mission to bring all stakeholders under one umbrella.