National Industrial Corridor Development Programme Picks Up Pace With Investment Of Over Rs 17,500 Crore

With India scaling up its efforts to develop world-class industrial nodes buttressed by efficient urban agglomerations and multimodal connectivity through the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called for optimal utilisation of resources for industrial corridors and expeditious acquisition of land with assurance of support and availability of budget for the programme.

The NICDP has gained traction with the project expanding from about three to four states with few nodes to 18 states and the ecosystem for industrial development acquiring new dimensions and speed as the government ramps up efforts to realise the manufacturing potential of the country.

The ambitious plan involves development of 11 industrial corridors comprising 32 nodes/projects to be executed in four phases. It was approved in December 2020 with the target to achieve the goal by 2026-27 and is part of the PM Gati Shakti Plan for reducing the national logistics cost.

A review meeting of a monitoring body for the project chaired by the Finance Minister shows that so far the NICDP has been able to deliver four developed futuristic smart industrial cities, namely Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) in Gujarat, Shendra Bidkin Industrial Area (SBIA) at Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Integrated Industrial Township of Greater Noida (IITGN) in Uttar Pradesh and the Integrated Industrial Township of Vikram Udyogpuri (IITVU) in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh with plug and play infrastructure upto plot level for the industries. In Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, two new nodes in Krishnapatnam and Tumakuru are moving forward towards implementation.

Further, the NICDCP is also developing multi-modal logistics hubs at Nangal Choudhary in Haryana and at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, a multi-modal transport hub is being developed at Boraki in UP.

To add momentum to the project, the government is looking at a judicious utilisation of resources for the project to complement the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, which is expected to bring about greater coherence in all investments in infrastructure projects.

The Asian Development Bank is supporting the government with a $250 million financing loan to support the NICDP which is the first sub-programme of the $500 million loan to develop 11 industrial corridors spanning 17 states.

The NITI Aayog is expected to take up the mapping of all different projects such as industrial corridors, freight corridors, defence corridors, National Industrial Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ), PLI-based industry parks, PM-Mitra parks, medical and pharma parks and logistic parks to understand the need for bringing them under PM Gati Shakti. The Finance Minister has also asked the Shipping Ministry to map out all the sea ports connected to various industrial corridors to see whether there are meaningful linkages.

The other imperative is faster acquisition of land and fast allotment at reasonable rates. Till date, 201 plots with 979 acre of land parcels have been allotted to various national/multi-national industrial units with committed investment of over Rs 17,500 crore and potential employment of over 23,000. Commercial production has already started in 12 units and nearly 40 companies are setting up factories.

Over 5,400 acre developed land is available for immediate allotment for various uses like industrial, commercial, residential, institutional etc. Under the Industrial Corridor Programme, complete hand holding support is being provided to the plot allottees till they go into commercial production. Eighteen states are being urged to do their decision making very quickly, offer the land, failing which the government may foreclose those projects and offer them to other states who would be willing to speed up the investment.

With the government strongly focused on attracting investors in industrial corridors, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is also prioritising holding of roadshows to attract businesses and reasonable pricing of land for industry with innovative solutions such as different lease period, lease premium payment flexibility, rental model, lease cum rent option.

To make the projects attractive for investors, who look closely at electricity rate, Goyal has directed that the rates be kept affordable and consistent as high charges are a deterrent to industry. The project has already attracted investments from companies of South Korea, Russia, China, the UK, Japan as well as from India.

With rail connectivity seen as an integral part of planning of project nodes, the government is planning regional railways and hydrogen train and wants these to be factored into infrastructure development. Also on the anvil are data centres and ducts for laying optical fibre. The other action plan is for state governments to plan dedicated nodes for electronic manufacturing, which was highly employment intensive.

Development of these industrial corridors will strengthen national supply chains and boost linkages with global value chains. This will help India to seize the huge opportunity for electronic manufacturing, which is emerging as the global value chain shifts towards trusted partners and India being seen as one with its success in electronic manufacturing.

Among other stakeholders tasked with monitoring the NICDP are Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, vice chairman of NITI Aayog, state chief ministers and ministers of various states like Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttarkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan.