The Tamil Nadu government will mobilise ₹3,000 crore as an Alternative Investment Fund Category – I to support new infrastructure projects in the current year.
The SEBI-registered fund by Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation is a landmark initiative, said the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister, O Panneerselvam, presenting the revised budget for 2016-17 in the Assembly today.
The second part of the vision document released in 2014 spelt out 217 specific infrastructure projects across six major sectors. Of this 88 projects have started and 16 have reached bidding stage and detailed project reports are prepared for 24 projects.
It has allocated ₹2,000 crore for Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Fund and ₹100 crore for project preparation fund in the current year, he said.
Corridor-based development of industrial zones is a key plan for the government. Ponneri to the North of Chennai will be developed as an industrial node as part of the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.
In the southern districts, a land bank of 19,000 acres is being created by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu for industrial development. A special purpose vehicle, the Madurai-Tuticorin Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, is expediting the land acquisition, the Minister said.
Investors’ meet Of the ₹2.42 lakh crore potential investments tied up during the Global Investors Meet organised by the State government in 2015, about ₹23,258 crore have materialised. The GIM will be conducted once in two years and the next one is planned next year.
In the MSME sector, 10,073 investment agreements were signed at the GIM and of them, 3,029 have materialised, he said.
Panneerselvam said an initiative to promote first generation entrepreneurs, the new entrepreneurship-cum-enterprise development scheme, will be extended to major educational institutions for executing the ‘start-up action plan’. The government has allocated ₹100 crore for this scheme to create a vibrant start-up ecosystem.