Goyal Urges States To Put Projects Under National Industrial Corridor Development Programme On Fast-Track

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has urged the states to put the NICDC (National Industrial Corridor Corporation) projects on fast track and set a deadline for acquisition and allotment of land in industrial nodes and clusters, an official release said on Friday (22 April).

“18 states are being urged to do their decision making very quickly, offer the land, otherwise we will be forced to foreclose those projects and maybe offer them to other states who maybe willing to speed up the investment,” Goyal said while addressing the Investor Round Table Conference on National Industrial Corridor Development Programme in Delhi on Thursday (21 April) night.

The minister, however, warned there should be no land squatting but units must be set up soon that would lead to absorption of new technologies and creation of jobs, a Commerce Ministry release said.

“Ultimately the nation’s assets have to be put to good use. As we say in business management terminology, ‘Let’s sweat our assets as much as we can, let’s put to use whatever infrastructure or facilities that are created wherever to the maximum possible use,” he said.

National Industrial Corridor Corporation (NICDC) is implementing 11 corridors comprising 32 projects in four phases.

Stating that one NICDC project is at the cusp of taking off, Goyal said several states are offering incentives under NICDC projects.

Greater NOIDA CEO has committed to allotment of land in 20 days and Dholera CEO has offered 50 per cent discount on land cost to the first anchors for the first 30 per cent of plots available, he said.

Stating that the NICDIC will be dovetailed with PM GatiShakti and NSWS, Goyal said Invest India will set up offices in the first four townships coming up under the NICDC project and BIS/QCI will set up testing labs in emerging industrial clusters.

Pointing out that India has again emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy and scaled the highest ever exports of $670 billion, Goyal urged entrepreneurs to take advantage of government initiatives such as the NICDC, Digital India, Smart Cities, $1.4 trillion huge infrastructure projects in the National Infrastructure Pipeline, NICDC facilities and financial inclusion.

Encouraging entrepreneurs to take advantage of the “great building block of exports”, Goyal said the world wants to do business with us and it is now upon us to seize the opportunity.

As we progress from a developing to developed nation, we can serve as soldiers during this Amritkaal, he said.

“After all you’ve seen the rush of countries wanting to do work with India, - two FTAs in our bag in a span of two months, three or four others at advanced stages of negotiations,” he said.

Stating that world class exhibition and convention facilities are being created at Pragati Maidan and IICC-Dwarka in Delhi, besides Greater Noida and Mumbai and , Goyal said India now wants to play an increasingly important role in MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) sector. He said we want to make India an investment destination of choice.

“Let’s participate in this growth story that India is working on and let’s see how we can make the best use of available facilities and also come up with ideas for the future,” he said.

According to the Commerce Ministry, NICDC is India’s pioneering Infrastructure programme, developing new industrial cities as ‘Smart cities’ through convergence of next-gen technologies, creating benchmarks and competition with best manufacturing/investment destinations in the world.

The NICDC was approved by the government in December 2020 for development of 11 industrial corridors with 32 state-of-the-art projects to be developed in four phases by 2026-27.

A combined investment of Rs 16,760 crore has been already done in the four cities for the 173 allotted plots.

The four ‘Smart’ industrial cities are emerging at Dholera (Gujarat), Shendra Bidkin (Maharashtra), Vikram Udhyogpuri (MP) and Integrated Industrial Township in Greater Noida (UP).

At the national level, Infra initiatives are being driven by the government’s flagship programme - PM Gati Shakti. It will play a key role in streamlining the remaining 28 NICDC projects under implementation with an aim to bring down the logistics cost, the ministry said.