By IANS
Ahmedabad : The $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, to be developed in collaboration with Japan, will now also include Madhya Pradesh and the state will reap benefits of infrastructure development and investments.
With the union cabinet giving its nod to the project Thursday, it is confirmed that the Pitampur-Dhar-Mhow belt in the central state stands included in DMIC as an investment region, taking the tally of such regions under the project to six.
Initially, Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Manesar-Bawal in Haryana, Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemra in Rajasthan, Bharuch-Dahej in Gujarat and Igatpuri-Nashik-Sinnar in Mahrashtra were proposed as the investment regions.
In July when the contours of the project were unveiled DMIC was to encompass five states – Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra – which were to be the key participants in the project.
However, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath at that time wanted Madhya Pradesh to be included in the project, industry observers here said.
His efforts have now paid off. Madhya Pradesh becomes the sixth member of this prestigious project. DMIC now covers three states ruled by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two ruled by the Congress that leads the coalition government in New Delhi and one ruled by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Similarly, the tally of short-listed industrial regions to be developed under the project has also been expanded to six with the inclusion of Neemach region in Madhya Pradesh. The others are: Meerut-Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), Faridabad-Palwal (Haryana), Jaipur-Dausa (Rajasthan), Vadodara-Ankleshwar (Gujarat) and Alewadi-Dighi (Maharashtra).
As many as 250 projects are likely to come up along the proposed 1,483-km Dedicated Railway Freight Corridor in sectors such as roads, ports, industrial parks and special economic zones (SEZs). The bulk of the investment is to come from the private sector.
Construction work is expected to begin in 2008-09, to be completed by 2012.
The Japanese financial services group Orix, which has already launched a $100 million project development fund in India together with ILFS in 2006, says the DMIC project could see investments in many sectors including ports, real estate development, SEZs, road construction, technology and manpower training.
According to reports, Mitsui Corporation, which is investing in a free trade warehousing zone in Noida, is keen to build a major logistics centre around the DMIC, especially for cold chain and port facilities.