Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has urged the States to put the NICDC projects on fast track and set a deadline for acquisition and allotment of land in industrial nodes and clusters.

“18 states are being urged to do their decision making very quickly, offer the land, otherwise we will be forced to foreclose those projects and maybe offer them to other states who maybe willing to speed up the investment,” said Goyal, addressing the Investor Round Table Conference on  National  Industrial  Corridor  Development  Programme here last night.

The Minister, however, warned there should be no land squatting but units must be set up soon that would lead to absorption of new technologies and creation of jobs.

“Ultimately the nation’s assets have to be put to good use. As we say in business management terminology, ‘Let’s sweat our assets as much as we can, let’s put to use whatever infrastructure or facilities that are created wherever to the maximum possible use,” he said.

National Industrial Corridor Corporation (NICDC) is implementing 11 corridors comprising 32 projects in four phases.

Stating that one NICDC project is at the cusp of taking off, Goyal said several states are offering incentives under NICDC projects. CEO, Greater NOIDA has committed to allotment of land in 20 days and CEO, Dholera has offered 50% discount on land cost to the first anchors for the first 30% of plots available, he said.

Stating that the NICDIC will be dovetailed with PM GatiShakti and NSWS, Goyal said Invest India will set up offices in the first four townships coming up under the NICDC project and BIS/QCI will set up testing labs in emerging industrial clusters.

Pointing out that India has again emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy and scaled the highest ever exports of $670 billion, Goyal urged entrepreneurs to take advantage of Government initiatives such as the NICDC, Digital India, Smart Cities, $1.4 trillion huge infrastructure projects in the National Infrastructure Pipeline, NICDC facilities and financial inclusion.

Encouraging entrepreneurs to take advantage of the “great building block of exports”, Shri Goyal said the world wants to do business with us and it is now upon us to seize the opportunity. As we progress from a developing to developed nation, we can serve as soldiers during this Amritkaal, he said.

“After all you’ve seen the rush of countries wanting to do work with India, - two FTAs in our bag in a span of two months, 3 or 4 others at advanced stages of negotiations,” he said.

Stating that world class exhibition and convention facilities are being created at Pragati Maidan and IICC-Dwarka in Delhi, besides Greater Noida and Mumbai and , Goyal said India now wants to play an increasingly important role in MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) sector. He said we want to make India an investment destination of choice.

“Let’s participate in this growth story that India is working on and let’s see how we can make the best use of available facilities and also come up with ideas for the future,” he said.

Stating that the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is, today, the world’s tallest leader among democracies, Goyal said, “As PM Modi says ‘yehi samay hai, sahi samay hai’, (This is the time, the right time), very often if you don’t grab an opportunity at the right time, you lose that opportunity.”

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary DPIIT, said Government has started EPDB 2.0 and decriminalization of industry related laws is a priority. The NSWS and India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) are also facilitating industry investments.

NICDC is India’s  pioneering  Infrastructure programme,  developing  new industrial  cities  as  ‘Smart  cities’  through  convergence of  next-gen technologies, creating  benchmarks and competition  with  best manufacturing/investment destinations in the world. The NICDC was approved  by the Government in December, 2020  for development  of  11 industrial  corridors  with  32  state-of-the-art  projects  to be developed in  4 phases by 2026-27.

A combined  investment  of  Rs.  16,760  crore has  been already done in the 4 cities for the 173 allotted plots. The four ‘Smart’ industrial  cities  are emerging at  Dholera  (Gujarat),  Shendra  Bidkin (Maharashtra),  Vikram  Udhogpuri  (MP)  &  Integrated Industrial Township in Greater Noida (UP).

At  the  national  level,  Infra  initiatives  are  being  driven  by the Government’s flagship programme, -  PM Gati Shakti. It  will  play  a  key  role  in  streamlining  the  remaining 28  NICDC projects  under  implementation  with an aim to  bring down the  logistics cost.