Maharashtra Chief Minister Pritiviraj Chavan launched the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, which will speed up the movement of industrial and agriculture goods produced in the State, on Monday.

The multi-billion-dollar project is an Indo-Japanese initiative, which will be aligned along the multi-modal Western Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor (DFC) of the Indian Railways that connects Mumbai with the Delhi region with a high-speed railway line. The DFC will be used exclusively for goods and container traffic.

The State support agreement (SSA) and shareholders agreement (SA) for the first phase of the project were signed in the presence of the Chief Minister and Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Anand Sharma. In the first phase, about ₹17,500 crore will be invested in the State.

The zone of influence of the DMIC project will be spread over 29 per cent area of the State. In the first phase, Shendre Bidkin Industrial City and a convention centre will be set up near Aurangabad. A multi-modal logistics park will also come up at Karmad in western Maharashtra.

Chief Minister Chavan said a total of 55,000 hectares covering eight districts will be required for the completion of the first and the second phases of the project. The Japanese Government has already promised a soft loan for the project.

The second phase is expected to enhance the State's manufacturing capability and will be boosted by further investments in the Dhule mega industrial park and the Nashik-Sinnar-Igatpuri investment region, he said.

Chief Executive Officer of DMIC Development Corporation Amitabh Kant said the project has all the necessary approvals in place. Both phases are expected to generate an additional 3.8 million manufacturing jobs in the State. For providing captive power to the project, two gas-based power projects have also been proposed.

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