New Delhi, July 7 (FN Agency) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday chaired the 1st meeting of the apex monitoring authority constituted to review the activities of National Industrial Corridor Development (NICD) programme, an official statement said.“What started with about 3-4 states with few nodes today has gone to cover 18 States and the ecosystem for industrial development has taken a different colour and speed as we are seeing a far more liberalized environment. This is a rapid scaling up and as a result there should be a greater cumulative benefit, we should be able to derive,” she said and urged the states to expedite the acquisition of land.Emphasizing upon the need to ensure optimal utilization of resources, the Finance Minister said Prime Minister’s GatiShakti National Master Plan was expected to bring about greater coherence in all investments in infrastructure projects.
She asked the NITI Aayog to map all the different projects such as Industrial Corridors, Freight Corridors, Defence Corridors, NIMZ (National Industrial Manufacturing Zones) PLI-based industry parks, PM-Mitra parks, Medical and Pharma Parks and Logistic Parks to understand the need for bringing them under PM GatiShakti.The finance minister also asked the Shipping Ministry to map out all the seaports connected to various industrial corridors to see whether there are meaningful linkages. She asked the next meeting of the Monitoring Committee to be convened in November.The apex monitoring authority comprises the Finance Minister as Chairperson, Minister-in- charge, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Minister of Railways, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Minister of Shipping, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, and Chief Minister(s) of States concerned.
Chief Ministers from six states namely Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, M.P. Maharashtra and Uttarkhand and Ministers from 7 States viz. Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan besides senior officials from all the states attended the meeting.Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said there is a need to focus on attracting investors quickly in these Industrial Corridors and asked NICDIT as well as States to have Road Shows to attract businesses. The minister said that the Industrial parks will be regarded as successful only if investment flows in.Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said regional railways and hydrogen trains are being planned and the infrastructure development should keep this aspect in mind.He also asked the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) to plan for data centers and ducts for laying optical fibre.