The leading captains of Indian industry on Tuesday offered a slew of investments and project initiatives in Punjab as Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh met top industry leaders on the second day of his Mumbai visit.
Chief Minister discussed investment opportunities in Punjab in separate meetings with business leaders, including Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, RPG Group Chairman Harsh Goenka, Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, among others.
While Ambani expressed his interest to set up testing ranges for his new defence projects in Punjab and sought land for the same, Goenka evinced interest in setting up a tractor tyre plant in the state.
Capt Amarinder invited them to explore the viability of the projects, extending his government’s full support for the same by providing them the necessary land and other facilities for the development of industrial units.
He also welcomed Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra’s offer for digitization of the state’s urban local bodies, besides the establishment of an integrated emergency management system.
Tech Mahindra is also keen to set up Dial 100 emergency response system, on the lines of UP100 (also known as Uttar Pradesh Police Emergency Management System), which employs 1400 women to deliver a response time of just 15 minutes.
Responding to Mahindra’s request for a land and incentive package for Swaraj tractors, the State Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said that about 100 acres of land was available in Bathinda, the strategic gateway for Rajasthan and Haryana.
Mahindra stressed the need for some sort of a certification body to ensure the quality of potatoes in Punjab. The company is supplying potatoes to McCain.
Manpreet also sought the company’s support for the ‘Hara Tractor Scheme’, which the Congress manifesto proposes as one of the initiatives to generate employment for the youth in the state.
Mahindra also offered support to the state government’s plans to start an online cab service to facilitate self-employment for youth.
Hindustan Unilever CEO and MD Sanjiv Mehta, in his meeting with the Chief Minister, expressed his company’s keenness to procure tomatoes and citrus fruits on a large scale from the state for its Kisan jams and squashes.
During his meeting, Anil Ambani drew the Chief Minister’s attention towards huge losses incurred by Punjab due to purchase of power at a high cost and also extended an offer to make available power to the state at Rs 1.75 per unit.
He urged the Chief Minister to direct the power regulator and the state grid to go for the cheapest power, to which Capt Amarinder promised to revisit all the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to assess the cost differential.
Inviting Reliance Group to Punjab for setting up its defence projects, the Chief Minister promised to arrange land for the establishment of testing ranges in Bathinda and Rajpura.
In response to a suggestion by Ambani for introducing the metro rail service in the state on build and transfer model, Capt Amarinder invited them to study the urban transport system in ludhiana to explore the possibility of setting up an elevated metro.
In his meeting with Goenka, the Chief Minister assured all possible help from his government for setting up a tractor tyre plant in the state.
The meeting with HUls Mehta centered on collaboration with the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) to enhance production of tomatoes, which the company was currently buying mainly from Nasik with Punjab contributing a little.