The Hindu 22.03.2013
Measures to strengthen infrastructure in urban areas
To ensure increased flow of funds to build quality urban infrastructure, the State government has a slew of initiatives such as setting of the Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme (TNIPP), development of Madurai-Tuticorin Industrial Corridor and creation of shipbuilding yard and land bank.
Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam said the TNIPP would be formed with the assistance of Japan International Co-operation Agency and it would commence operations during the current year.
The TNIPP would aim at easing some bottlenecks faced by the investors, mainly by policy changes and correcting infrastructural inadequacies.
Facilitating
investment flow
This will facilitate the investment flow of around Rs.770 crore for investment in small and medium infrastructure projects over three years.
Besides, an allocation of Rs.2,000 crore for the Infrastructure Development Fund and Rs.200 crore for the Project Preparation Fund was provided in the Budget Estimates 2013-14, he said.
Reiterating its assurance of creating land bank of 25,000 acres through State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu to attract more industries, Mr. Panneerselvam said a new ship building yard will be established in Tuticorin by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation under public-private partnership mode.
“During the current year, the government will give a push to the development of the Madurai-Tuticorin Industrial Corridor.
The project proposes to create four manufacturing regions, one agri-business region, two business investment regions, a special tourism zone, one rural tourism hub and one knowledge hub. This will attract Rs.1,90,000 crore of industrial investment over a period of 10 years,” he said.
For promoting rural Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centres, the State allocated Rs.10 crore and will soon announce a special package of support to stimulate and revitalise the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector. A special package of incentives for encouraging investments for the development of the industrially backward districts of southern Tamil Nadu will also be announced soon, he added.
Keeping a time horizon of two Five-Year Plans in mind, the second volume of the Vision 2023 Document, with a shelf of key infrastructure projects was approved by the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board in its first meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme on anvil.
