Gujarat government to seek Centre's nod to expedite Rs 1.1 lakh crore projects

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's drive to revive investment projects tangled in red tape has given the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government an opportunity to highlight the lakhs of crores of investment plans in the state that are stuck due to lack of clearances from New Delhi.

The state is approaching the Cabinet Committee on Investments for urgent intervention to expedite projects worth Rs 1.1 lakh crore promoted by top Indian and global corporate such as Reliance Industries, Shell, Essar group and Adani Ports, that have been waiting for green clearances from the Centre for over three years in some cases. These projects, officials said, are only part of an initial list of investments stuck in the state, with a more comprehensive list being drawn up over the next two weeks.

"Our state government is equally concerned as the Centre is, about reviving investor sentiment and the economy by getting committed investments in the pipeline off the ground, " Kamal Dayani, Industries Commissioner of Gujarat told ET. "We will represent the many projects in our state that are held up due to lack of clearances from central ministries to the special project monitoring group set up under the Cabinet Committee of Investments," he said.

The Rs 8,800 crore expansion plan for RIL's marine operations at Jamnagar, the Rs 19,000 crore Mumbai-Vadodara expressway and Rs 43,000 crore of investments in the country's largest infrastructure idea - the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor - are among the projects waiting for a green signal from the environment and forest ministry at the Centre.
These are part of the initial list of 17 projects or policy conundrums for which the state is seeking a fast-track resolution, that are pending with the ministry of environment and forests. "A majority of investment plans get stuck in environmental clearances, which involves a lot of time-consuming processes," said Dayani.

Gujarat's top industry official said that these projects would be submitted to the central government in a week or so, even as the state is identifying all such stalled projects for which the Centre's intervention would be sought. "We have written to all our departments and asked them to share the development and investment projects whose implementation has got held up," Dayani said.

The principal opposition party's Prime Ministerial nominee and the state CM Modi has often been at the receiving end of jibes from the Congress' union ministers and state level leaders for 'hyping' up Gujarat's success in attracting investors. Flagging the many investments in the state that are flailing due to lethargy at the Centre could prove to be a strong political counter-point for Modi.

In July this year, for instance, corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot called the state's flagship biennial summit for investors known as 'Vibrant Gujarat' a marketing gimmick. "The marketing, PR machinery and the media blitz, these are all orchestrated," Pilot had said. The party's leader in Gujarat Shankarsinh Vaghela has described the summit as a tamasha that yielded little results.