Jharkhand's master plan for high tech industrial growth

Kolkata, Jun 24: The Jharkhand government has floated global tenders for preparing a master plan for "high tech" development of six cities and towns by 2010 at an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 crores to help brush up the image of the mineral rich state.

Presenting a future road map of the tribal dominated state to members of the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce(MCC) here today, Jharkhand Finance and Urban Development Minister Raghubar Das said the government was also preparing a special urban development plan for Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Bokaro and Giridih, each having a population of over five million.

He said under the programme, to be undertaken under Public-Private Partnership(PPP) Rs 10,000 crores had been earmaked for real estate development programmes while the remaininig amount would be spent on construction of roads,bridges,flyovers besides developing waste water management and improvement of surface transport in the six cities.

''We have already prepared the ground work for signing a total of 43 Memorandums of Understanding(MoU) with as many corporate entities in different sectors to carry out time bound work worth about Rs 19,000 crores,'' Mr Das informed.

He said the state cabinet, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Arjun Munda, had recently announced a new industrial policy and decided to provide ten years' tax holiday to investors for setting up modern multiplexes in the state capital and other cities.

''Responding to our offer, noted Bollywood film maker Prakash Jha has offered to purchase land in Jamshedpur for setting up a multi-screen multiplex in the steel city,'' Mr Das informed.

On other plans for industrialisation he said besides preparing a water conservation policy,they had chalked out separate plans for the growth of sericultutre,floriculture,horticulture and Agro-processing industries in the greener belts of the newly formed state.

The minister reiterated the state government's well-established policy towards the use of its huge underground mineral resources and made it clear that under no circumstances would state minerals be allowed outside Jharkhand.

As about 25 per cent of India's iron ore reserves,32 per cent of copper and around 28 per cent of zinc, alumina, mica and silver are available in the state, a large number of major industries, including the Jindals, had evinced keen interest for setting up mineral-based industries in Jharkhand, Mr Das said and reiterated his government's firmness for not allowing export of mineral reserves from the state.

Earlier, MCC President and real estate owner Santosh Saraf complimented the Jharkhand minister for bringing in an industry-friendly situation in the state.

UNI