Chhattisgarh is inviting private investors to set up manufacturing clusters for taking advantage of five sea ports within its 600 km reach from the State.
With five ports Paradip and Dhamra in Odisha, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Machillipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, the opportunity of setting up of manufacturing clusters in Chhattisgarh is immense, officials informed.
Notably, a mega Multi-Modal logistic Park (MMlP) is currently under construction spread in an area of 103 acres with an investment of ` 207 crore in Chhattisgarh’s new capital-- Naya Raipur, officials informed.
Notably, the MMlPs in Telangana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand are being developed by Central public sector undertaking Container Corporation of India ltd (CONCOR).
As part of the National Perspective Plan, prepared under the Sagarmala Programme of the Union Ministry of Shipping, a total of seven MMlPs were proposed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
The potential sites were identified based on comprehensive study of the container cargo movement across the country and are located in the proximity of important industrial clusters. This will be advantageous for the transportation of containerized cargo, officials informed.
Taking this forward, CONCOR officials have informed that domestic operations have already commenced at 1 MMlP in Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) and MMlPs at 4 proposed locations - Nagulapally (Telangana), Siliguri (West Bengal), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Jharsuguda (Odisha), which are under development stage.
For the other 2 locations – North Madhya Pradesh / Chhattisgarh border (Singrauli) and Nagaur (Rajasthan), action will be initiated with a detailed area-wise analysis.
At Nagulapally (Telangana), 16 acres of the proposed 60 acre MMlP is being developed at a total investment of ` .120 Crore. The MMlP at Jharsuguda (Odisha) is under construction over an area of 27.41 acre with an investment of ` .100 Crore.
The MMlP in Uttarakhand has been commissioned at Pantnagar with an investment of ` 120 crore in a joint venture between CONCOR and SIIDCUl (State Infrastructure Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand)
For the other two proposed MMlPs in Rajasthan (Nagaur) and Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh (Singrauli), detailed traffic assessment would be conducted to assess the potential of the multimodal hubs.
Sagarmala is the flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Shipping for promoting port-led development in India. It aims to achieve capacity expansion and modernization of sea-ports along India’s coastline, enhance port connectivity to the hinterland, facilitate port-le industrialisation to promote trade and sustainable development of coastal communities. The National Perspective Plan (NPP) prepared under Sagarmala Programme was released in April 2016 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
More than 150 projects have been identified which will mobilize investment of over `. 4 lakh crore and generate close to 1 crore new jobs, including 40 lakh direct jobs, over a period of 10 years. These projects are expected to generate annual logistics cost savings of close to ` 35,000 crore and provide boost to India’s merchandise exports by $110 billion by 2025.
It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh government had been wooing prospective investors to take advantage of the State’s strategic location which shares boundaries with seven states.
The states are – Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, officials stated.
The investors would have access to 50.9 crore population (40% of country’s population) and potential to tap 38% of India’s GDP, officials stated.
Notably, State Commerce and Industry Minister Amar Agrawal in the month of January this year had suggested Consul General of People’s Republic of China MA Zhanwu who was on a visit to Chhattisgarh that owing to its location in the heart of the country, Chhattisgarh State can be developed as 'logistics Hub of India'.
The Consulate General then had assured that China will encourage its industrialists to extend support in development of Chhattisgarh as ‘logistics Hub’ of India.
The Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) also has plans of developing a ‘Transport Hub’ spread over an area of 161.9 hectares in the new capital city. The hub would include setting up light Rail Transport System (lRTS) stations. The area being earmarked for the 'Transport Hub' would be 12.55 per cent of the total area of the new capital city, officials stated.