The Union government has invited businesses to move to or start up in “modern industrial townships” like the well-planned Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC).
“It makes eminent business sense to locate to modern industrial townships like AURIC…. Industries coming to these nodes will power the manufacturing sector in the country,” said Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, while attending a roundtable conference of investors in Mumbai on Monday.
The 4th National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) Investors’ Roundtable Conference was organized by Maharashtra Industrial Township Limited (MITL), formerly known as Aurangabad Industrial Township Limited. MITL is a joint venture between the governments of India and Maharashtra.
MITL’s flagship industrial area, the Aurangabad Industrial City or AURIC, is one of the most well-developed Industrial Smart Cities in the world. With dedicated residential spaces and investment of over Rs 7,000 crores, it is a beacon of industrial development in the Marathwada region, Goyal said.
AURIC has planned to develop a MITRA Textile Park with the support of the Ministry of Textiles under the PM MITRA Scheme, a Mega Food Park and an International Convention Centre there, the minister added.
Encouraging investors, the minister said the Union government was committed to keep logistics costs down and increase the ease of doing business at AURIC. He assured that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at Centre will do everything to address the requirements of various stakeholders.
The minister also spoke about the National Single Window System for Business Approvals, and said his government’s aim behind it was to ensure that a person sitting anywhere in the world should be able to get all approvals—to buy land or set up business in the country—with a click of a button.
According to Goyal, the NICDC is a special purpose vehicle that envisages to establish, promote and facilitate development of the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme, India’s most ambitious infrastructure programme aiming to develop new industrial cities as “smart cities”. The programme is aimed at providing impetus to planned urbanization in India with manufacturing as the key driver.
“I am certain that under the current leadership, Maharashtra will once again prove itself to be the most industrialized, progressive and fastest growing state in the country,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was also in attendance, said that Maharashtra aspires to be a trillion-dollar economy in next six to seven years. “We have tailor-made packages of incentives for investors. We are also addressing the special needs of the industry,” he said.