Govt clears 6 IIU Schemes worth Rs 373.35 crore

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) To enhance competitiveness of industry by providing quality infrastructure through public-private partnership, government today cleared six projects under Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS) worth Rs 373.35 crore including central grant of Rs 247.80 crore.

The meeting of IIUS held under the chairmanship of Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has approved the Rs 99 crore Industrial cluster in Jagdishpur (Amethi, Uttar Pradesh) with a Central grant of Rs 50 crore, a statement said.

Engineering Cluster, Nashik (Maharashtra) has been sactioned Rs 69.96 crore with a central grant of Rs 50 crore and the Readymade Garments Cluster, Jabalpur (Madya Pradesh) getting Rs 44 crore with a Central grant of Rs 32.95 crores.

Similarly the Auto Cluster, Adityapur (Jharkhand) has been been sanctioned Rs 65 crore with Central grant of Rs 48.75 crore and Rs 24.39 crore has been approved for the Handloom Cluster, Chanderi (Madhya Pradesh) with a Central Grant of Rs 16.35 crore.

For the Chhindwara Industry Cluster (Madya Pradesh) the Center will contribute Rs 50 crore of the approved Rs 50 crore.

So far 26 projects with total cost of Rs 1766.18 crore and involving central grant of Rs 952.10 crore have been sanctioned under IIUS.

These project works are at different stages of implementation and five projects are nearing completion.

A critical evaluation of the Scheme is being conducted by Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd, the preliminary indication of the evaluation has been positive.

These projects would be executed by Special Purpose Vehicles involving the local industry associations.

The projects are aimed at improving the competitiveness of the clusters by providing infrastructure such as garments complex, dyeing plant and ETP, training centre, design/ quality lab, road, water supply, electricity distribution, etc.

It is expected that these projects would lead to enhancement of export, physical integration with backward and forward linkages, technological improvement, better product quality through dyeing, designing and quality testing, product innovation and diversification and increase in production and market size.

''The industrially progressive States were able to take the benefits of the Scheme due to their inherent advantages in mobilising industry associations, and conceiving and preparing project proposals quickly,'' the statement said.

As a result, 18 out of the 26 sanctioned projects are in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it added.

In order to correct this skewed pattern of sanction, the Department of Industrial Policy&Promotion (DIPP) obtained the approval of the CCEA for sanctioning six additional projects in industrially less developed States.

Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme was launched in 2003 with a view to enhance competitiveness of industry by providing quality infrastructure through public-private partnership in selected functional clusters.

Central assistance up to 75 per cent of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore is given for each project.

The remaining project cost is required to be financed by the stakeholders of respective clusters subject to a minimum industry contribution of 15 per cent of the approved project cost.

UNI PBB BJR RAI2006