Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor Gets Cabinet Approval

The central government has approved the proposed Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor. This corridor will be running through 20 cities in seven states- Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. In the initial phase, an Integrated Manufacturing Cluster will be set up in each of the states within an area of 10 sq. kms which will be provided by the state government. About 40% of this area will be reserved for agro-processing and manufacturing since a major part of most of these states are used for agricultural purposes. The states are granted the freedom to decide if they want to have more than one such Cluster. Uttrakhand will be relieved from providing the proposed area of 10 sq. kms keeping in mind that a considerable portion of the state consists of hilly regions. Brownfield or Greenfield will be equally accepted in the state for this project.

The setting up of a Development Corporation for the Corridor has also been approved by the Cabinet which will be involving an investment of about Rs 100 Crores. The central government will bear 49% of this amount and the rest will be financed by the respective state governments and HUDCO. For the setting up of these seven Integrated Manufacturing Clusters in each of the state which will be constructed over a period of 15 years, the central government has sanctioned Rs 5600 Crores. Further, these clusters will be receiving all the benefits as per the National Manufacturing Policy of 2011. Apart from this, the central government will provide subsidy to the state governments while acquiring land, give external connectivity to the states and Rs 100 Crores to the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor Development Corporation for project development. The government also has plans regarding PPP investments in future for the sake of infrastructure development.

The Image above was taken from Flickr Dr EG.