Ahmedabad
With neighboring Maharashtra bagging some big-ticket industrial projects, a top official of the Gujarat government today conceded that the state is facing a tough competition in attracting investments, partly due to the expensive power.
Arvind Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Gujarat Industries and Mines Department, said it was “a matter of concern” that some major projects went to Maharashtra.
He was speaking at an interactive session on ‘Make in India at Gujarat’, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.
“Since we have done very well in power sector in Gujarat, people invested here despite the fact that we gave them costly power. But now the power sector scenario is changing in other states too… People are moving to other states as uninterrupted power is also available there now,” he said.
“You must have seen the reports that three to four major projects have gone to Maharashtra in just two weeks. It is a matter of concern for us.”
“Maharashtra has now solved its electricity supply crisis.
They have also built roads and ports, which are attracting new business,” said Agarwal.
“Not just Maharashtra, states like Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and even Punjab are also bouncing back and giving a tough competition. Something must be done for high power cost in Gujarat,” he said.
US car major General Motors, which entered India with a plant at Halol in Gujarat, has decided to close it down and expand its facility at Talegaon in Maharashtra.
More recently, Foxconn had announced a USD 5 billion investment in a manufacturing facility in Maharashtra, while Posco has decided to invest USD 3 billion in a steel plant in the same state.
Difficult land acquisition was another constraint for industrial projects in Gujarat, Agarwal added.
“Land for industries is one of the major constraints here.
Due to our land laws it takes years to get permission or to transfer plots for industries. There are also many complications in these procedures. Till today these issues have remained unsolved,” Agarwal said.
Water availability issue too may affect Gujarat’s industrial growth in the long run, he warned.
“Many of our industries are dependent on Narmada water.
However, they have exhausted their alloted stock of water.
Now, we have to ask the Centre to do something about it and increase the quantity. In future, the industry may have to shell out more to get water,” he said.
Later, talking to the media, Agarwal said land acquisition issues may be solved by bringing a bill in the coming Assembly session, to be held from August 26 to 28.
“We are in talks with revenue department to ease some of the land-related laws. I have learnt that revenue department has decided to bring a bill to amend some of these laws,” he said.
Gujarat began to pursue investments aggressively during Narendra Modi’s tenure as the Chief Minister, organising high-profile ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ summits.
PTI