Center to link Jammu with Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor to boost manufacturing sector
Srinagar: The Center is planning to connect Jammu with the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC) to boost manufacturing and logistics sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Amritsar Delhi Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) is a proposed industrial route that will link northern industrial and agricultural centers with major ports in western India, including Jamnagar and Kandla in Gujarat.
The initiative aims to expand both industry and infrastructure in the states that form the route of the corridor.
An official document accessed by The Kashmir Monitor has revealed that the Center is planning to extend the AKIC to Jammu as part of the National Industrial Corridor program aimed at developing future industrial cities in India.
“The Government of India plans to connect Jammu with AKIC as per the National Industrial Corridor Development Program and the UT Government will declare the existing alignment of the Amritsar-Jammu highway as a freight corridor.”
The corridor will help spur an industrial revolution connecting the spurs and industrial areas of Baddi, Bhatinda and Ludhiana to the state of Jammu and Kashmir through the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway.
The document states that the corridor will generate employment opportunities and economic development in the Union Territory. “It will aim to create state-of-the-art world-class infrastructure to promote local commerce, increase investment, generate employment and achieve sustainable development.”
The Center has directed the UT administration to identify at least one mega industrial area as an investment node on the dedicated corridor.
The work of identification of Mega Industrial Zone will start soon. The inclusion of Jammu in AKIC will definitely benefit and revolutionize the industrial sector of the Union Territory. Notably, it will boost logistics and e-commerce by reducing the distance between cities with better infrastructure in place. The project aims to create an industrial zone that is spread across seven Indian states and 20 cities within each of these states,” said official sources.
The Amritsar-Jamnagar greenfield corridor is scheduled to be completed by September 2023 at a cost of Rs 26,000 crore.
The extension from Jammu to AKIC is believed to attract more investors to the Union Territory.
The administration is simultaneously promoting Jammu and Kashmir as an investor destination by inviting prominent business houses to invest in the Union Territory. In the last two years, the Union Territory Administration has received investment proposals worth Rs 66,000 crore.