Maha awaits GoI approval for 8 projects

Mumbai: After the Vedanta-Foxconn preferred a Gujarat move for their semiconductor manufacturing unit, all eyes are now focussed on outcomes of eight other industrial projects seeking fruition in Maharashtra, currently pending a Union government sanction. Of the nine pending proposals, Maharashtra is already smarting over the in-principle sanction accorded to Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh for bulk drug parks (BDPs), while it has been kept waiting. Maharashtra had submitted a proposal under the ‘Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks’ scheme for a BDP in Raigad district. Set to be spread over 2,500 acre land, with a financial outlay of Rs3,000 crore, the state government’s request for Rs1,000 crore financial assistance from New Delhi was duly acknowledged by Centre on August 30, 2021. However, on September 01, 2022, approval was granted to the three other states in the running.

Similarly, Maharashtra had submitted another proposal for a medical devices park (MDP) in Bidkin Industrial Area to the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India (GoI) on October 14, 2020. In a letter, the Maharashtra government was informed on September 24, 2021, that the MDP proposal had been waitlisted, even as proposals from Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were given inprinciple approval on October 14, 2020. Further, six other state-based projects also await GoI nod and more importantly, funding under Union government schemes aimed at providing an impetus and incentivized industrialization for Maharashtra.

The Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL) joint venture with three stateowned oil marketing companies namely, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in Maharashtra awaits financial closure from Centre. The five multi modal logistics parks (MMLPs) project in Maharashtra, under the Bharatmala scheme is also awaiting nod. MIDC signed an MoU with the National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) to form a special purpose vehicle with the Rail Vikas Nigam Board to acquire land parcels at proposed sites. Similarly, MIDC submitted one greenfield project for Bidkin (1,000 acres) in Aurangabad and one brownfield project for Amravati (100 acres) to the Ministry of Textiles under the PM Mega Integrated Textiles Region and Apparel (PM-MTTRA) parks scheme. On March 17, 2022 a presentation was made by MIDC to the Ministry of Textiles and GoI approvals are awaited.Another pilot project proposal for setting up a manufacturing zone for power and renewable energy equipment in Maharashtra is awaiting support to ensure timely closure of the project. It is set to be located on 227 acres of land in Butibori at an outlay of Rs400 crore. A meeting to discuss a proposed electronics manufacturing cluster (EMC) at Ranjangaon in Pune was held on July 19, 2022, where verbal approval was given by the review committee. Final approval is pending. The final project in the pipeline of the state government is a leather footwear and accessories cluster at Ratwad in Raigad. To be set up at a 151-acre site at Mangaon, a proposal was submitted on the national portal on September 13, 2022.