Title - Centre, UP to develop 200-sq km industrial township

The state government has begun work to build an industrial township in 200 sq km in the Noida-Dadri-Ghaziabad belt. Part of the proposed Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor (DMIC), the township will be spread from Bodaki in Greater Noida to Chola in Bulandshahar. Thriving on Railways’ proposed western freight corridor, the township will attract an investment of Rs. 75,000 crore and create 12 lakh jobs. The Greater Noida industrial development authority (GNIDA) and the Uttar Pradesh state industrial development corporation (UPSIDC) will acquire land to build infrastructure as well as for the industries to set up base here. The centre will provide Rs. 3,000 crore and Japanese assistance, while the state will provide land.“The Noida-Dadri-Ghaziabad township — where food, electronics, auto, IT and other industries will set up their units — will be built on the lines of industrial townships which have come up in developed countries such as China,” said Greater Noida chief executive officer (CEO) Rama Raman.He said the project got delayed because of the “indifference” shown by the previous state government. “Now we will do surveys, prepare a master plan. We intend to finish the project in the next five years,” he said. The UPSIDC has already acquired 2,500 acres of land at Chola in Bulandshahar.   “Currently, trucks from our region take 12-13 days to reach Mumbai. Even trains take 7-8 days. Once this corridor becomes operational, high-speed and heavy-duty trains will do the job in 12 hours flat,” Raman said.

 “The DMIC project will attract huge foreign investments and set up world class infrastructure. Employment potential, industrial output exports from the region will go up massively,” he said.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister on Saturday cleared the DMIC project and termed it an important industrial development project, assured full cooperation in its implementation and asked the industry department to expedite the process of execution.

Initial infra projects: For the township, the Greater Noida administration has decided to upgrade Bodadi railway station, extend Metro rail from Noida to Greater Noida, develop a Dadri-Tughlakhabad-Ballabgarh railway station, a Noida-Greater Noida-Faridabad expressway, an auto mart, a power plant and a logistic park.

  DMIC & freight corridors: The DMIC aims at developing an industrial zone across six states, including UP, aided by rail, road, port and air connectivity.

A DMIC development corporation will build the corridor running into 1,483 km between Delhi starting from Dadri to Mumbai up to Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

The Railways has also proposed to build a dedicated (western) freight corridor along route. (The Railways has also proposed to build another—eastern—freight corridor from Ludhiana to West Bengal. Both will meet at Dadri in Greater Noida)

India and Japan are in agreement to develop the DMIC. Several investment/industrial areas have been identified in the six states. The Noida-Dadri-Ghaziabad township is one of them.

Another industrial township under the DMIC will be built — in the second phase — in the Meerut-Muzaffarnagar belt. The Meerut-Muzaffarnagar township — mainly a hub of agro-based industries — will be spread in 100 sq km.

The DMIC is to be established on either side of the western dedicated freight corridor. In Uttar Pradesh DMIC covers 36,068 sqkm 12 districts, which is 7 % of the total DMIC region.

UP and NCR form just 1.5 per cent of the western freight corridor’s total length. Rajasthan (39 per cent) and Gujarat (38 per cent) account for 77 per cent of the total length, followed by Haryana and Maharashtra (with 10 per cent each).