Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project

Location of Delhi and Mumbai within India

The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project is a planned industrial development project between India's capital Delhi to its financial hub, Mumbai. It is one of the world's largest infrastructure projects with an estimated investment of US$90 billion, and is planned as a hi-tech industrial zone spread across seven states, along the 1,500 km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor which serves as its backbone.[1]

It includes 24 industrial regions, eight smart cities, two airports, five power projects, two mass rapid transit systems and two logistical hubs.[1] The eight investment regions proposed to be developed in Phase I of DMIC are Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad (in UP), Manesar-Bawal (in Haryana), Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana and Jodhpur-Pali-Marwar (in Rajasthan), Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow (in MP), Ahmedabad-Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) in Gujarat, the Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park and Dighi Port Industrial Area in Maharashtra.[1]

India needs to employ over 100 million people within the next decade and so this project assumes vital importance to develop manufacturing centres that could employ millions.

The project has received major boost with India and Japan inking an agreement to set up a project development fund with an initial size of ₹1,000 crore (US$148.6 million).[2] Both the Japanese and Indian governments are likely to contribute equally. The work is already underway and progressing at a rapid pace, with the dedicated freight corridor expected to be completed by December 2019.[3]

Financing

Ministry of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma had proposed the establishment of a USD 9 billion revolving fund with matching contribution from India and Japan to kick start the implementation process of the USD 90 billion Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project.[4] The ambitious project will be funded through private-public partnership and foreign investment. Japan will be a major investor for this project. The corridor will span 1483 km. The industrial corridor project will be implemented by the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, an autonomous body composed of government and the private sector.

Ease of doing business

A total of 24 special investment nodes are envisaged to be created by the government that would support manufacturing but any type of industry could be set up. The main role of these hubs are to facilitate businesses, set up their factories quickly without any hiccups in land acquisition and resources plus providing cheap, fast and efficient transportation to ports and the whole nation. The government would play a role as a facilitator to encourage businesses to invest more by providing a "stable environment".

States

The project includes six large investment regions of 200 square kilometres each and will run through six states: Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, southern Haryana, eastern Rajasthan, eastern Gujarat, and western Maharashtra. The corridor planned across 2,700 km with an additional 5,000 km of feeder lines connecting Mumbai to West Bengal.

Length of corridor and statewise distribution

This dedicated freight corridor will offer high-speed connectivity for high axle load wagons (25 tonnes) of double stacked containers supported by high power locomotives. The Delhi-Mumbai leg of the Golden Quadrilateral National Highway will run almost parallel to the freight corridor. The central spine across the DMIC corridor is the railway connectivity via the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor.[5]

DMIC will include the development of the 1540 km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with 24 nodes (investment regions and industrial areas) across seven states:

Employment

Conceived as a global manufacturing and trading hub, the project is expected to double employment potential, triple industrial output and quadruple exports from the region in five years.The project is expected to generate 3 million jobs, largely in manufacturing. The labour availability is approximately 50 million in the immediate influence zone and over 250 million across the states where the project will pass through. There are several high quality and renowned educational institutions across the states such as IIT, IIM, Birla Institute of Technology and Science and many more institutes such as Indian Institute of Information Technology are planned along the corridor.

Northern Peripheral Road

Northern Peripheral Road is to be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. This stretch will connect Dwarka with National Highway 8 at Kherki Daula and will pass Pataudi Road. The Northern Peripheral Road stretch has been planned as an alternate link road between Delhi and Gurgaon, and is expected to ease the traffic situation on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.[13]

Infrastructure

India has often lacked in building quality infrastructure to support the economy. This project aims to leapfrog India in building high quality infrastructure to make businesses cost competitive in the global market by using advanced technologies and planning like the Golden Quadrilateral project.

It will include a 4000 MW power plant, three seaports and six airports in addition to connectivity with the existing ports.

Energy

In order to meet energy demands of the expected growth along the corridor the Government of India predicts needing at least 100,000 MW by 2012 to help meet this number the DCMI willing be building powerplants that provide around 4000 MW each. While the final number of power plants to be built is still unknown the DMIC plans on power them with Coal, Gas and Lignite.[14]

Cities

India is urbanising rapidly with 40.76% of Indians, expected to be living in urban areas by 2030 from 31.16% in 2011. This ongoing process of urbanisation would create huge stress in the current existing cities which are already unable to support the rapid growth under poor infrastructure support. In some cases existing urban centres may also face environmental or physical constrictions (such as Mumbai) in ability to expand. In the current scenario, this would prove to be an impediment to India's continuing economic growth. One of the main goals of this mega project would be the development of numerous new cities to create new centres of economic activity in the country. These new globally benchmarked cities aim would be superior to the existing cities in terms of infrastructure, planning, city management and services.

Some of the big notable cities are already in various stages of development such as Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, Dholera SIR and a Vikram Udyog Nagari near Ujjain.

Knowledge City

Government of Madhya Pradesh has allotted 1,200 acres of for the development of Knowledge City near Ujjain which will be known as Vikramaditya Knowledge City. The city will be mainly used for education sector and is a part of ambitious Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor project. The city will come up near Narwar village on Dewas-Ujjain Road.[15][16]

Sewage and water treatment

With Singapore's successful water management system, India has brought in six Singaporean consultants, one being the Jurong International, to draw up plans for the new cities involved.[17]

Port

The Government of Rajasthan has proposed the establishment of a dry port facility at Rabhana, near Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, to service trade in and around the state. The objective of the consultancy services was to establish project viability, evaluate the alternate sites and recommend the facilities and details of the infrastructure and services to be provided, and conduct a detailed study/analysis of its technical, social, economic and financial viability. The project ensures coordination of the input of a large project staff, and completion within schedule. It is reviewed and edited the final report and provided specialist advice on the organization and marketing considerations in the containerized transportation industry.

The facility, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 2 billion, is expected to function as an enhanced container freight station (CFS) with facilities like container yards, transit sheds, warehouses, railway sidings and truck parking. The port would be complemented with modern cargo-handling equipment with functions like the filling of containers being mechanized. The port will concentrate on containerized cargo. The transfer of bulk and break bulk would prove expensive at the dry port. The detailed project report for Phase I of the project was completed in September 2001.

Acquisition of land, though yet to commence, will be expedited by the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO). Construction work is scheduled to commence in early 2003. The World Bank has agreed to provide funds for the BOT project. The Indian port sector is going through a major transformation with the Government of India planning to spend around 2.7 trillion ($60 billion) in the current decade, mainly on development and expansion of ports.

Initially, by March 2017, India has planned public and private investment of 342 billion ($7.6 billion) to create seven new ports as part of the country's drive to triple its merchandise exports. According to the Ministry of Shipping, India aims to triple its merchandise exports from $225 billion in 2010 to $750 billion by 2017.

However, growth has been constrained by inadequate investment in port infrastructure. Cargo handling at many of the country's ports is painfully slow compared to major ports elsewhere in Asia. At present, port projects worth $2.3 billion are currently in progress for up-gradation of capacity from 963 million tons in 2010 to 3.1 billion tones in a few years. Much of this expansion will depend on private sector investment, particularly from major terminal operators like DP World and APM Terminals who already have a presence in India.

Much like Delhi, Gurgaon too will have a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor to decongestant traffic on the Northern Peripheral Road. In several sections, the NPR will have provisions for the BRT corridor to ensure smooth flow of traffic. The road will be fully developed in March 2012.[18]

References

External links

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