The Uttar Pradesh government has identified four out of the 11 early bird projects which will fall within the 1,438 km-long Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor sub-region of the state. The four projects that will be put on the fast track are the development of Boraki railway station near Dadri as per international standards, setting up of a power plant in Greater Noida, development of a multi-level logistic park and also an international airport at Jewar, in Greater Noida. The Centre has also given its stamp of approval for granting priority to these four projects.
The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA), the designated state level nodal agency of the state government, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) in this respect last week. With this, the work of identifying a project consultant who will, in turn advice the government on other infrastructure development projects, will also be commissioned.
The DMIC seeks to create integrated investment regions and industrial areas across six states through which the corridor will pass. According to a senior state government official, work on these projects would now be put on the fast track, with GNIDA facilitating decisions and approvals of the state government and acquisition of land on the one hand and DMICDC providing expertise and resources in undertaking project development activities under PPP.
?The four projects that have been identified as early bird projects were already on the state government?s priority list. And with the DMICDC also agreeing on them, we are likely to immediately undertake feasibility studies for these projects along with the selection of consultants for the development plans. We are also likely to create special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to house initial project development activities and facilitate various approvals from central and state governments,? said the official.
The establishment of a Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) between Delhi and Mumbai, which is the backbone of the ,1483-km DMIC project, has been envisioned by the GoI, with end terminals at Dadri in NCR and Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai. This corridor will offer high speed connectivity for high axle load wagons of double stacked container trains supported by high power locomotives.
The DMICDC, which is a joint venture company, consists of 51% equity participation from financial institutions and 49% equity from the GoI, which has in turn offered its 24% stake equally to the six states in the DMIC region, including Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
It may be mentioned that India and Japan had last week signed two agreements for implementing the ambitious Rs 3,60,000 crore Delhi-Mumbai Industrial
Corridor project. The DMIC project development fund will be set up with equal contribution from India and Japan. India has already approved a grant of Rs 330 crore (approximately $75 million) as the country?s contribution. The Japanese component of $75 million is being provided in the form of an untied loan from JBIC.
