DMIC update

In a significant development, work on the second stretch between Vadodara and Jawaharlal Nehru port in Mumbai is likely to begin next month with proposals for an engineering service loan (ESL) being approved, said PN Shukla, director operations of DFCC at a meet organised on Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), Special investment Region (SIR) by Assocham and Gujarat Industrial Development Board (GIDB) on Friday. Another major project that the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) has promised to undertake is to construct, jointly with Indian Railways, a high speed passenger corridor simultaneously along the high speed freight corridor to be developed by 2017 along the Rewari-Vadodara-JN Port line. “A freight corridor alone would be meaningless. We should ensure faster movement of both people and goods. On this corridor a high speed passenger rail can help cover the distance between Delhi and Mumbai in 4 hours,” says Amitabh Kant, CEO of DMICDC. Principal secretary industries Maheswar Sahu claimed that different financial institutions have pledged credit worth Rs 65,000 crore to Gujarat for the coming five years. “The bankers have signed MoUs for this purpose,” says Sahu. Industries minister Saurabh Dalal said that nearly 33,000 hectares of government land was being reserved for the DMIC corridor. “The industrial estates earmarked alone have 25,000 hectares. Besides Dholera future city — the largest of its kind in the world — is being developed.”