PM gives go-ahead to Amritsar-Kolkata ind corridor

PM Manmohan Singh gave green signal to the ambitious Amritsar-Delhi- Kolkata industrial corridor project, on the lines of DMIC, to promote development of northern region and create more jobs. Singh appointed an Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) on Friday, under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary, to prepare a feasibility report within a month for setting up the corridor to promote industrialisation in the northern region, said a PMO statement on Friday. The new industrial corridor, stretching over 1,900 km, will cover Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. This is the second such corridor after the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which is being developed with Japanese assistance at an estimated cost of USD 90 billion. "IMG will examine the feasibility of setting up the Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata industrial corridor along with the structural and financing arrangements that would be required to operationalise it at the earliest. The IMG will give its report within a month," said the statement. The members of the IMG will include Secretaries of Economic Affairs, Road Transport, Shipping and Chairman Railway Board. "This is one of the most densely populated regions in the world and houses about 40 per cent of India's population. This is a region which needs major push for industrialisation and job-creation and this corridor will act as a catalyst for growth," the statement said. The industrial corridor will use the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor as the backbone. The UPA-II is in its last year of the five-year tenure and the general elections are due in May 2014.