Provide Rs 5,000 cr central package for J&K; ASSOCHAM

Jammu, Apr 6 (UNI) The central government should extend a special package of Rs 5,000 crore to improve the necessary infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir, which has Rs 13,000 crore export potential in the next five years, according to a industry body.

''Following the restoration of normalcy and peace in J&K, the investment flow has started registering and has gone up 10 times from 200 million dollars in 2001 to 2,300 million dollars in 2007 said ASSOCHAM president Venugopal N Dhoot, while releasing the survey.

It is expected to further accelerate in the next five years he added, stating that according to the study the state has the potential to attract Rs 27,800 crore investments, which will be able to export Rs 13,000 worth of goods and provide job opportunities to about 25 lakh people by 2012.

''We have requested the central government to extend through the Planning Commission a special package of Rs 5,000 crore to improve the necessary infrastructure so that investment flows towards J&K fastens both in value and volumes from domestic and overseas industries,'' he said.

The Chamber has projected J&K as a peaceful state, which the industrialists in other parts of India and abroad still perceive as a disturbed place. ''It is not like that J&K is peaceful and now it is our job to let people know it,'' Mr Dhoot said.

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