The Punjab government has written to the Centre requesting to extend the proposed Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor to Amritsar. The proposed corridor will cost of $90 billion for which India and Japan has signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU). Sukhbir Singh Badal, MP and acting president of Shiromani Akali Dal told FE that the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, has written separate letters to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh in this regard.
He informed that the letters to Prime Minister were sent on July 16.
The 1,483-km corridor will cover Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai to Dadri and Tughlakabad in the National Capital Region of Delhi. It will spread cover Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and will link the Golden Quadrilateral. About 75% of the project will be funded by Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode. The balance will be raised through budget or by loans from the government of Japan and other agencies.
Badal said that Punjab has always received a step-mother treatment by successive governments at the Centre. He, however, had a word of praise for the prime minister, who had earlier cleared Rs 18,919 crore Bathinda Refinery. He said that if the corridor is extended to Amritsar, it would cover entire Punjab and would help revive the sagging economy of the state. He agreed that Punjab’s GDP was hovering around 4 to 5% as against national growth rate of 10%.
Badal said the proposed corridor is an ambitious project and such projects need to be extended to remote and bordering regions which has suffered due to invasions. He said that the proposed project centres around development of infrastructure along the 1,483-km-long dedicated freight corridor between New Delhi and Mumbai? involves building of airports, setting up of several logistics, agro-processing parks and special economic zone which would help the state economy.
