By IANS
New Delhi : The ambitious project to build a $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) jointly by India and Japan reached an advanced stage of negotiations Monday with the visit of a high-powered business delegation led by Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari.
"DMIC is one of the flagship projects of the growing partnership between India and Japan. This project would have world-class infrastructure with the potential to provide three million jobs in various sectors and tripling the industrial output," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told reporters after a luncheon meeting with his Japanese counterpart.
The project entails development of infrastructure along the 1,483-km dedicated freight corridor linking India's top two metros that includes building of airports, setting up of several agro-processing parks and special economic zones, creating 4,000 MW of power generation facility and two ports in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
According to Kamal Nath, with the establishment of the corridor India can look forward to "substantial and quantum jump" in investments by Japanese companies that may total $10 billion in the next five years.
"With this corridor I expect a large number of Japanese companies, especially the small and medium companies, to invest heavily in India by making it a hub for production and exports to Europe and West Asia," Amari said.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2012.
The project, initiated during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Tokyo visit in December 2006, is likely to be finalised during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India in the last week of August.
Amari's visit will be followed by another round of meeting and negotiations by stakeholders from both the countries, which is scheduled to take place on July 23-24.