‘EAST COAST ECONOMIC CORRIDOR ON ANVIL’
Thursday, 10 September 2015 | Kumar Chellappan | CHENNAI
The Narendra Modi Government is fast working on an economic corridor linking Kolkata in the east with the southern port city of Thoothukudi, said Union Minister of Commerce Nirmala Sitaraman on Wednesday while addressing the delegates of Tamil Nadu’s first-ever Global Investors Meet.
“The conceptual plan for Visakapattanam-Chennai Industrial Corridor which is the East Coast Economic Corridor linking Kolkata and Thoothukudi via Chennai is ready. Activities are moving very fast and it will come soon to the state of execution,” said Sitaraman.
Experts in Tamil Nadu see the proposed East Coast Economic Corridor linking Kolkata and Thoothukudi via Chennai as a game changer in the overall economic and social development of the country’s hitherto unexplored East Coast.
Though the Minister did not elaborate on the proposed East Coast Corridor, experts like S Kalyanaraman and Ramesh Sethuraman in Chennai are hopeful that the project would lead to resurgence in the economic life of millions of poor fishermen along the East Coast spread across the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.
Nirmala Sitaraman in her speech also lauded the achievements made by the Jayalalithaa Government in various fields. She described Tamil Nadu as a “progressive, proactive, investor friendly State” which offered lot of opportunities to be tapped. The Minister drew the attention of investors to the 560-km-long Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor and development of Ponneri in the route as an industrial node and the Visakapattanam-Chennai industrial corridor.
Business barons who attended the inaugural session on Wednesday announced their mega investment plans one by one. Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group, said the group has plans to invest Rs 20,000 crore in Tamil Nadu. The group has already signed agreement with the Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a 750 MW solar power plant at Ramanathapuram. Speaking to reporters Adani said he was looking into sectors like power and ports as potential investment areas.
Shiv Nadar, chairman, HCL, described as Chennai’s own boy, said his group would invest $ One billion in Tamil Nadu over the next five years. HCL already has invested Rs 6000 crore in Tamil Nadu. HCL would be setting up two development centres, one each at Madurai and Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu. Together, the two centres would employ 35,000 people, Nadar said.
Ramesh Sethuraman, corporate analyst is of the view that if the proposals made on Day One of the GIM materialises, Tamil Nadu has the potential to soon emerge as the El Dorado of India.http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/east-coast-economic-corridor-on-anvil.html