Proposals may touch Rs 50,000 cr but will be filtered
Govt to give benefits of industry to far-off distts also
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 4: In major achievement for Jammu and Kashmir post abrogation of special Constitutional provisions of the erstwhile State, number of major foreign countries including United Arab Emirates, England, Singapore, Japan and few others from Middle East and South East Asia have expressed interest in investment in the Union Territory and the UT Government representatives will shortly meet Ambassadors of these nations in New Delhi to finalize the proposals.
As the Government braced up for Investors Summit in Jammu and Kashmir in May, it has decided to segregate establishment of industrial units in the entire Union Territory instead of confining them to capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar which will benefit people of far off districts in both Jammu and Kashmir divisions.
Official sources told the Excelsior that there has been very encouraging response to the Investors Summit in Jammu and Kashmir in many foreign countries and the UT Government has already started receiving Expression of Interest from many nations including United Arab Emirates, England, Singapore, Japan and others from Middle East and South East Asia.
“All such offers are being scrutinized properly and responded to appropriately,” sources said, adding the UT Government representatives will shortly meet Ambassadors of the countries which have expressed interest in investments in Jammu and Kashmir as well as other nations with the proposals and attract the investment.
The Government has activated its offices in New Delhi for shortly arranging meetings with the Ambassadors and would also seek help of the Union Government, if required.
When contacted, Commissioner/Secretary, Industries and Commerce, MK Dwivedi confirmed expression of interest by the foreign nations for investments in Jammu and Kashmir saying they were examining the proposals and will shortly meet Ambassadors of these nations.
“We propose to spread investment to different districts of the Union Territory and not confine them to the capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar alone to ensure that benefits of investments like job opportunities for the youth reach every part of the UT,” Dwivedi said.
According to sources, the Jammu and Kashmir Government was expecting Expression of Interest in the investments in the Union Territory amounting to Rs 50,000 crore but might filter them and confine the proposals between Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore initially as it would require lot of infrastructure development to meet requirements of the industrialists.
“The Government would prefer good investments in J&K. For instance, the investments which are not environment friendly might not be accepted. Further, it would segregate the units depending on availability of resources in the districts. For instance, the food processing units could be shifted to Rajouri and Poonch districts in Jammu region and Baramulla and Kupwara districts in Kashmir. Similar would be the criteria for offering land to the industries in other parts of the Union Territory,” sources said.
They added that the Jammu and Kashmir Government representatives will be holding road shows in Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad up to first week of March to attract investments from these States which will be followed by mini-conclaves separately in Jammu and Srinagar for the local industrialists, who want to collaborate with the investors from outside.
The Government, according to sources, has created land bank of 6000 acres in Jammu and Kashmir for the investment purposes, which come out to around 50,000 kanals. Of this, about 4000 acres land has been identified in Jammu region and around 2000 acres in Kashmir.
“The land bank will be increased with the increase in demand,” they said.
Some big Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) have also been approached by the Jammu and Kashmir Government for investments in the Union Territory which included Rail Coach Factory.
Regarding finalization of dates for the Investors Summit, sources said, the dates will be finalized depending on availability of the VVIPs but the Summit would be held in the month of May.
Both capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar will get one major function each. If the Summit is held in Jammu, the ground breaking ceremony will be organized in Srinagar, sources said, adding that ceremonies and their venues will be finalized later.
It may be mentioned here that post abrogation of special Constitutional provisions of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 and bifurcation of the erstwhile State into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, the UT Government has been making lot of efforts to attract private investments in J&K which will generate large number of employment opportunities.
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