The Central plan to earmark Rs 3,500 crore every year for the next five years to set up seven industrial cities on proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor has cheered both Haryana and Punjab.

With a major part of the corridor in Haryana, the state government hopes that the proposed corridor would leapfrog industry in the state as major urban centers of the state _ Gurgaon and Faridabad _are part of the National Capital Region of Delhi. The Manesar-Bawal-Nimarana investment region, spanning over Haryana and Rajasthan where land for industry is available, are expecting a fillip.

The Centre will provide Rs 500 crore per year to each of the seven industrial towns for the next five years from 2011-12 and additional Rs 200 crore per annum for the matching infrastructure.

Sources in the industry department, Haryana told FE that ?major beneficiary would be Faridabad-Palwal industrial belt located in close proximity of the dedicated freight corridor.? Faridabad has been identified as one of the 63 major urban agglomerates of the country to receive Rs 2,679 crore for urban infrastructure improvement under the JNNURM?.

There was huge potential for the light engineering, casting, forging, electrical appliances and textile industries to grow with the coming up of the proposed corridor?. The Gurgaon, Rewari, Sohna, Palwal industrial towns would be the industrial estates to watch say the sources. Sources added that armed with Haryana?s new Industrial Policy, the state would be touching a new high in industrial growth.

Neighbouring Punjab also hopes that the corridor would help better flow of FDI. FDI inflow in Punjab had not kept pace with many states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and even Orissa.

In 2001-02 the direct foreign investment to Punjab was a meager Rs 164.6 million as against Haryana’s Rs 4,913.5 million. Similarly in 2002-03 Punjab had FDI of Rs 0.3 million as against Haryana’s Rs 1035.4 million. In 2005-06, Punjab’s FDI flow dipped to 191.1 million while Haryana had FDI inflow of Rs 575.4 million. It was only recently that Punjab got ?biggest ever FDI in the form of Bathinda Refinery-the Rs 18,900 crore project of HPCL Mittal Energy (HEML), a joint venture between HPCL and Mittal Energy that is slated to be commissioned in 2011 itself.

It is learnt that DMIC would have a mega power plant, three ports and six airports apart from connectivity with the existing ports. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is likely to accelerate infrastructure development, including industrial parks, roads, ports and rail connectivity along the routes, and facilitate exports from the regions covered by the corridor.

Originally the 1,483-km corridor was to span six states ? Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra?which would have been made stakeholders. However, after Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal took up the issue of extending the corridor up to Ludhiana with Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, the Union Government agreed to include Punjab in the project. Badal, in his letter to the Prime Minister had observed that Punjab being a border state needs special attention.

The agriculture growth in the state had nosedived and the primary sector was also showing negative growth. Therefore, it was only the industry that could help revive the economy of the state.

The export-oriented industry will get a real boost with movement of goods becoming faster through the corridor. It is likely to provide connectivity to the region with ports in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The state hopes that big industrial townships and special economic zones would come up in the corridor, which in turn will boost to the economy of Punjab.

Besides, Punjab and Haryana, other industrial belts to be covered by the proposed industrial corridor include Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana in Rajasthan, Pitampura-Dhar-Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, Ahmedabad-Dholera in Gujarat, Igatpuri-Nashik-Sinnar and Dighi Port Industrial Area in Maharashtra.