Investments cross Rs 1 lakh crore mark in over 3,400 projects

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 28

With fresh investment commitments of Rs 7,700 crore during the two-day Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit that culminated on a high note in Ludhiana on Wednesday, the total investments in the state since the Congress government took over the reins of the state crossed the whopping Rs 1 lakh crore mark in over 3,400 projects, the government has confirmed.

We have taken landmark decisions to attract fresh investments and boost the existing industry. These included abolition of institutional tax and a film city in Chandigarh. We will continue to do whatever needs to be done for facilitating trade and industry in future as well. — Charanjit Singh Channi, Chief Minister

Ludhiana, known as the industrial capital of the state, remained the biggest beneficiary by fetching new ventures and expansion of existing projects in the district at an estimated investment of Rs 2,800 crore, the official figures have revealed.

The Invest Punjab Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Rajat Agarwal, told The Tribune, here on Thursday, that various industry groups and investors committed Rs 3,280 crore investment to the state, of which the major chunk of Rs 2,800 crore went to Ludhiana.

While an NRI investor, Meenu Malhotra from the United Kingdom, announced Rs 2,600 crore investment in his two real estate projects, the local Vardhman Group pledged to pump in Rs 200 crore more investment in Ludhiana.

With the state’s total investment figure touched Rs 1,06,700 crore, over 3,400 projects were expected to generate over 3.6 lakh jobs for the skilled and unskilled youth.

Of the total of over 3,400 new projects coming to the state, the production activity has already started in 54 per cent ventures and 34 per cent projects were under construction while the remaining 12 per cent of them were in the pre-construction stage.

Not only the local and NRI investors have reposed confidence in the border state but even a number of industry groups from at least 13 foreign countries have also touched base here.

The countries, from where the foreign investors have so far pledged investment to the agrarian state, included South Korea, Singapore, the UAE, Italy, Japan, the USA, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain.

The main foreign companies having already opened or were in the process of opening their units independently or in collaboration with the local industry in the state comprised Aichi Steel, Air Liquide, Think Gas, Sunjin, Graepel, Yanmra, Hartmann, Centrient Pharmaceuticals, Ognibene, Sharaf Group and B Lal Steel Shredding Private Limited.

The highlight of the annual mega show with a theme of “Progressive Punjab – A story of partnership, delivery and growth: Investors reassured”, which was for the first time held in Ludhiana, was further strengthening the stakeholder consultations and making the industry a part of the decision making process even for the grant of incentives.

The stakeholder consultations were initiated with industry partners from local industries and MNCs, industry associations, including CII, PHD, FICCI and CICU, partner countries through their embassies, JETRO, Enterprise Singapore and USIBC, professionals and experts from CIG, GCSI, Invest India, KPMG and WEF, besides union ministries and departments, including the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Housing and Urban Development and Labour.

Three different rounds of stakeholder consultations were held in the presence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the top government functionaries on October 23, 8 and 4.

Chairing the state session at the concluding day function of the summit, the CM had also inaugurated offices of the district bureau of Invest Punjab – the state government’s one-stop unified regulator controlling 23 different departments to provide advanced single-window facilitation to the investors.

Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said: "We have taken landmark decisions to attract fresh investments and boost the existing industry. These included abolition of institutional tax, one-time settlement scheme for plot holders of PSIEC, 50 per cent waiver of fixed charges applicable on electricity consumption for the micro small medium industry, scrapping of 40,000 pending cases of VAT against industry and traders and a film city in Chandigarh. We will continue to do whatever needs to be done for facilitating trade and industry in future as well."

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