Special Investment Regions on cards; Task Force on the job

Hannover, Apr 25 (UNI) Dwarfing even the big sized Special Economic Zones, the Centre is considering to develop mega Special Investment Regions in partnership with the State Governments on the lines of Pudong in China, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Houston in the US.

''The Task Force headed by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister has already received a few proposals for a Special Investment Zone for the petro-chemical sector from six states. One or two of these proposals would be cleared and taken to the Cabinet after finalising the details,'' Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ajay Dua said here today.

Addressing a closed door meeting of the Indo-German Infrastructure Dialogue, Dr Dua said the matter is being handled right at the top level. The investment regions, encompassing 250 to 300 kilometres, would dwarf even the mega sized Special Economic Zones. However, some of these SEZs can come up within these Regions which will enjoy a host of fiscal and other incentives.

The first proposals for setting up these Regions have come from Gujarat Dahej, Haryana- Kundli, Karnataka Mangalore, Mahrashtra (possibly, Navi Mumbai) and Orissa ( Paradeep). All these proposals relate to Petrochemical Investment Regions and the government has started a serious dialogue with a number of public sector units like the ONGC, IOC and GAIL.

''The concept is that there would be one mother industry, say a mega refinery, and many other units related to this units would spring up. Besides, the Centre and the State jointly would put up a world class infrastructure in terms of roads, rail and airports in these Regions to attract the big ticket investment,'' Dr Dua said.

He said despite the best of intentions, India has been able to attract only two billion dollar of FDI in infrastructure. ђ If we have to attract 150 billion of FDI in infrastructure, we need to come out with these mega projects,'' he said.

UNI PC SS VP2007