Southern industrial corridor makes some progress

AK Ramdas 13 May 2014

The full cost of the Southern industrial corridor is estimated to be between Rs10,000 crore and Rs12,000 crore and would be shared by stakeholders

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in consultation with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), have made some progress, in identifying about 25 industrial projects, including ongoing and new, which would come up in the Southern Industrial Corridor, covering Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

From the press reports, it appears that this meeting of the stakeholders, included members of the Japanese and Indian central goverrnment, representatives from the concerned state governments, port and Nartional Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials, and officials of leading Japanese companies like Yamaha, Toshiba and Mitsui.

The full cost of the project is estimated to be between Rs10 crore and Rs12,000 crore to shared by the concerned parties. More details will be available in due course.

This meeting was chaired by TKA Nair, Advisor to the Prime Minister. In this important meeting, the terms of reference has been finalised and an integrated master plan to cover the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC) is expected to be submitted by March 2015. It appears that this is being developed in the lines of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and is expected to ease the congestion at Chennai and Kamarajar ports.

Plans include creation of industrial hubs in Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Vasant Narsapur in Karnataka. In case of Tamil Nadu, as Hosur is reasonably well developed, chances are that the choice of site may fall on Ponneri as most Japanese companies are located in North Chennai.

Ambitious plans under this project include, proposed and ongoing projects in Chennai and Kamarajar ports, a dry port at Sriperumbudur, including a greenfield airport there. Hoskote to Dobaspet would be on four lane traffic. It will bring in improvement in road traffic from Mulbagal to Renigunta via Chitoor. Apart from these, a dedicated high freight corridor is planned including a Chennai-Bangalore expressway.

Press reports indicate that by early June, the final interim report No:2 will be submitted for further study.

This is an important development that needs expeditious approvals from higher authorities so that work progresses smoothly.

(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce. He was also associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts; and later to the US.)

Comments