PATNA: Industry minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Tuesday made an appeal to the central government to sanction a PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) Park to Bihar. Shahnawaz said 1719 acres of land has already been identified in West Champaran for this purpose.
PM MITRA Park scheme aims to integrate the entire textiles value chain, right from spinning, weaving, processing or dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing at one location, thus reducing logistics cost of Industry. The Union ministry of textiles in October, 2021 issued notification for setting up of seven PM MITRA Parks in the country.
Shahnawaz pitched for a MITRA Park in Bihar while speaking in the first meeting of the apex monitoring authority under Industrial Corridor Development Programme at New Delhi on Thursday.
“We have identified 1719 acres of land in West Champaran. Bihar has adequate trained manpower for textile industries and with the creation of Kushinagar airport, excellent road connectivity as well as international air connectivity has been created,” Shahnawaz said.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was presiding the meeting, also advocated for Bihar to get PM MITRA Park during her address. “If there is potential for textile industries in Bihar, then we must consider it,” Sitharaman said.
PM Mitra Park apart, Shahnawaz said Bihar is rapidly progressing in the work of developing an industrial manufacturing cluster on 1670 acres of land in Gaya under the Amritsar- Kolkata industrial corridor project. “Around 1200 acres of land has been acquired and the work of acquisition of remaining land would also be completed by September, this year. For this, funds to the tune of Rs83 crores have been made available to Infrastructure Development Authority (IDA) in two instalments- Rs50 crores and Rs33 crores,” he said
He added that the industrial corridor at Gaya's Dobhi is being set up by the industries department and Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in association with National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust.
Shahnawaz also expressed gratitude to the Centre for providing funds to the tune of Rs503 crores to Bihar under PM Gati Shakti part-2. “A huge land bank is available for industry in Bihar. Considering the proposals placed before the Center, if an amount of Rs1200 crores is made available under various projects, it will give a lot of impetus to industrialization in the state,” he said.
The first apex monitoring authority meeting of the Industrial Corridor Development Program held in Delhi in the presence of union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, railway minister Ashwani Vaishnaw, was attended by representatives of 18 states including chief ministers of six states.
