Gujarat embarks on 25,000 hectares land bank

Hyderabad: The Gujarat Government is now in the process of creating a land bank of about 25,000 hectares aimed at helping new investors expedite their projects, according to the State Minister for Finance and Industries, Mr Saurabh Patel.

“While Gujarat is ‘power-full’ with capability to provide 24-hour uninterrupted power to all categories of consumers, the State will be able to add another 2,500 MW of additional generation capacity by next year and 10,000 MW within three years,” he said.

Speaking at an interactive session here on Tuesday at a meeting hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Mr Patel said the State has become one of the most sought after destinations for investments. The Reserve Bank report bears testimony and reflects Gujarat has garnered 22 per cent of total investments.

The last three ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ events attracted over $200 billion in investments, he said.

SOLAR POLICY

“In addition, we are laying special thrust on attracting investors in the solar and wind energy projects and expect to unveil a new solar power generation policy, which will make investments in this new sunrise sector more attractive,” he said.

The Principal Secretary, Industries, Gujarat, Ms Gauri Kumar, said Gujarat was the only State to register a double digit GDP growth in all the five years of last Plan period and is among select States to have revenue surplus.

The State Government is in the process of creating an investor portal that will simplify processes and expedite clearance. This portal has been developed by TCS and will become a single point interface for people outside Gujarat, she explained.

SEZs

In Gujarat, 60 special economic zones (SEZs) are under execution accounting for about a third of area notified in the country.

These SEZs are complimented by 83 product clusters located across the State, a large petrochemical investment promotion zone and Dholera Special Investment Zone, she said.

Referring to investments made by Bombardier, she said that the project will be commissioned later this week by the Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, and commence commercial production of metro rail by mid-2009 to be supplied to Delhi Metro project.