Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asked the NITI Aayog to prepare a report mapping projects such as freight corridors, industrial corridors, National Industrial Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs), logistics parks, and pharma hubs so that they can be incorporated under the PM Gati Shakti initiative of the government.
Speaking at the first meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority for the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme on Thursday, the FM also suggested that the Shipping Ministry should look at all the sea ports connected to various industrial corridors to see whether there are meaningful linkages.
“I would like the NITI Aayog to map all this (industrial corridors, freight corridors, defence corridors, manufacturing zones, textile parks, logistics parks, medical and pharma hubs). Map it all and tell us where you see a possibility for bringing them under the PM Gati Shakti,” she said.
Many of them are still lying loose and unconnected, and mapping it up will give a better idea of how they can all come into this scheme of things, Sitharaman added.
The PM Gati Shakti is a digital platform to bring 16 ministries, including Railways and Roadways, together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. It is to facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who also attended the meeting, said that rail connectivity has to be an integral part of planning of project nodes and land acquisition can take into consideration the requirements of Railways.
Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stressed on the 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. “We must allot the land fast. The land should be reasonably priced for the industry and we should allow innovative ways such as different lease period, lease premium payment flexibility, rental model, lease cum rent option. Electricity rate is another thing investors look at closely.,”he said