Japan keen on DMIC-like corridor in South India

After pitching in with $4.5 billion towards seed capital for the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), the Japanese Government is now keen on developing a similar corridor in south India. Simultaneously, talks are on at the official level to develop an eastern corridor and connect it to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh as a meeting point with the DMIC.

Mr Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, DMIC Development Corporation Ltd, told Business Line that the Detailed Project Report of the proposed southern corridor is being undertaken by Japan and should be ready before the meeting of the Prime Ministers of both the countries in December.

“There is a huge Japanese interest in the southern corridor. This is because India has become the centre for compact car manufacturing. The Japanese are interested that the cars made in India be exported,” he said.

COMPACT CAR HUB

However, he said the proposed southern corridor has several gaps, the main one being goods getting held up in Chennai and Ennore ports. Importantly, there needs to be smooth movement of goods produced in Karnataka to ports in the South.

Official level talks have come to the conclusion that there is little scope to develop a dedicated freight corridor or a high-speed container train lane in the South like in the case of DMIC or even in the proposed eastern corridor.

Therefore, the aim now is to reduce logistics costs in the region by moving goods fast through an 8-10 lane highway from different parts, including Karnataka, to ports in Tamil Nadu.

FARM BELT IN EAST

Meanwhile, the development of an eastern corridor is being considered mainly keeping in mind the farm belt.

“The eastern corridor passes through the agricultural belt and therefore can be used to collect agricultural produce in mandis , do value addition and bring it to ports for export,” Mr Kant said.

The eastern corridor will also have manufacturing zones similar to the western coast to shift under-employed people from agriculture to manufacturing.

S’PORE, US, KOREA INTERESTS

Mr Kant said the DMIC, meanwhile has been attracting interest from countries such as Singapore, the US and Korea. He said the DMICDC plans to take the project forward with the Japanese help for now.

Mr Kant, however, added that there are many Singapore companies having experience in working with Japan and they can now collaborate with Japan for the downstream projects. Other countries and companies can also bid for downstream projects, he said.

>arun.s@thehindu.co.in

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