Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday offered to develop industrial enclaves for Italian businesses with social infrastructure to attract more investments from them.
“I have a proposition for you. We can set up Italian enclaves where Italian businesses can set up shops…we can set up hotels, restaurants, healthcare for Italian people who would come to work there. It will be home away from home for them,” Goyal said at Italy India Business Forum
The minister said that the enclaves can be set up along the industrial corridors where these businesses can set up manufacturing facilities and offices. He said that one of the 12 smart industrial cities coming up throughout the country can be offered for these enclaves,
India would invite Italian companies to certain sites of industrial smart cities like Dighi near Mumbai and Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) in Maharashtra to showcase potential locations for these enclaves.
The 2024 budget had also announced the setting up of 100 industrial parks around cities. “Framework for the industrial parks around the cities is being worked out. These parks would be less than 500 acres and if Italian companies want these can also be offered,” Goyal said.
The 12 industrial smart cities were approved by the government in August last year. These cities will come up across 10 states at a total cost of Rs 28,602 crore. Total area covered by these cities will be over 26,000 acres
The industrial cities under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme will have the investment potential of Rs 1.5 lakh crore and will create 10 lakh direct jobs and 30 lakh indirect jobs.
The new smart industrial cities are coming up in Khurpia in Uttrakhand, Rajpura in Punjab, Agra and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Gaya in Bihar, Dighi Port Industrial Area in Maharashtra, Jodhpur Pali MArwar in Rajasthan, Kopparthy and Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Zaheerabad in Telangana, Palakkad in Kerala. These are coming up on Amritsar-Kolkata, Delhi Mumbai, Vizag-Chennai, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Nagpur and Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridors.