Nagpur News : An interactive meeting was convened with Trade Commerce & Industry fraternity of the region with Anand Ji Sharma Minister of Commerce, Industry & Textile GOI which was well attended by office bearers of Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce, Vidarbha Industries Association, Nagpur Chamber of Commerce Ltd., M.I.D.C. Industry Association, Vidarbha Environment Acting Group, Mihan Industries Association & TIE etc.
The meeting was held at Hotel Centre Point, Nagpur on 7th April 2014, Dipen Agrawal, President NVCC welcomed Anand ji Sharma and presented a memorandum in regard to promote, support or defend constitutionally the legislation or other action either legislation or executive by the State or Centre Government, Railways, Local Authority or any other authority attending or likely to affect the trade & commerce in the region directly or indirectly.
In the memorandum it has been stated that Vidarbha region, located in the eastern part of Maharashtra is made up of Nagpur and Amaravati divisions which comprise of 11 districts namely, Buldhana, Akola, Washim, Amravati, Yavatmal, Wardha, Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur & Gadchiroli. Vidarbha is believed to have substantial potential for industrial & agricultural exports. Government of Maharashtra (GoM) has in recent years made efforts to tap the economic potential of the region and has organized “Advantage Vidarbha” to leverage the region’s inherent strengths and facilitate, it’s transformation into a premium investment destination for a host of industries. Its rich resource base makes it a prospective destination for manufacturing sectors such as Textiles, Mining, Power, Cement, Steel, Agro & Food Processing and Pharmaceutical & Fine Chemicals. At the same time, service sector also have the potential to flourish in the region.
Given its central location, Vidarbha could also be an ideal place for export logistics operations. To enable the Vidarbha region to develop & contribute in national GDP to its optimum potential, by accelerating trade & commerce activities, we request your good-self to encompass various projects sanctioned/approved for the region into Commerce Ministry’s vision document and by ensuring time bound implementation we are confident that it will result in integrated, holistic development and overall growth of the region.
A. To put on fast track the proposed National Investment & Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in Kuhi & Umred Taluka of Nagpur District.
In July 2012, ninth NIMZ (third in Maharashtra) was accorded in-principle approval for about 6300 Hectors of area situated in Kuhi and Umred Taluka of Nagpur District. It was estimated that the project would attract investment of approx. Rs. 25,000 crores and will provide gainful direct & indirect employment to about 2,60,000 people of the Nagpur district.
B. Convention Centre at Nagpur
In same period your good-self also announced setting-up of State of the art Convention Centre at Nagpur. Nagpur has a unique location being the center of India & well-connected to other parts of the world. An international convention centre brings the trade and commerce, culture and education, science & technology from the world community on one platform and sets global trends in the area. In fact, it has been a long overdue necessity for the entire Central India. What the Pragati Maidan is to the north, such a centre in central India would be to the rest of India, it would be an alternative to Pragati Maidan. It is logistically very sound to have such a centre in Nagpur, rather than transport goods all the way up to Delhi to Pragati Maidan for exhibitions; transportation costs can be halved, and Nagpur is more economical than Delhi.
C. Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)
Considering the potential of agro-based export from the region your good-self had directed to establish an APEDA Center at Nagpur, in July 2012. It would not be out of place to mention here that, out-of eight Agri Export Zones (AEZ) identified in Maharashtra, only one is from Vidarbha region i.e. Nagpur for oranges, whereas there is great potential of direct export of other agri-products including spices from the region. Unfortunately, in spite of these projects being approved/sanctioned way back in 2012 nothing has taken off yet.
D. Developing Multi-Modal Logistic Park (MMLP) in Nagpur District
Indian Railways have conceived MMPL as multi-modal freight terminals for bulk, break-bulk and containerized traffic and will be equipped with facilities like warehousing, cold storage, handling, and customs checking, to facilitate efficient and cost effective services like cargo aggregation and disaggregation, inter-modal transfer, sorting, packing and repacking. With this initiative, the Railways hope to provide value-added services that will make an inter-modal transfer to rail attractive in the supply chains of various types of users. While transport to the MMLP from the surrounding hinterland area could be by road, consolidation and value addition followed by transfer to rail for longer hauls would be an incentive trade & commerce in the region. Anticipating implementation of GST in foreseeable future many logistic companies among other industries have committed themselves for huge investments in “Advantage Vidarbha”.
He requested, Honorable Minister to use his good office so as to impress upon Railway Ministry for taking suitable steps to develop MMLP in vicinity of Nagpur to keep it in pace with the changing requirements of the region.
E. Export Development Fund (EDF) for Vidarbha:
Due to the persistence of the Socio-economic imbalances in the region (which is evident even at present) for a long time, Vidarbha has remained under-developed as compared to other parts of State. We request your good-self to set-up an Export Development Fund for Vidarbha region similar to EDF for North-Eastern region of India.
F. To have good judgment & to acquaint itself about various issues related to trade & commerce and import & export, Ministry has set-up Inter State Trade Council on 24th June, 2005 for institutionalized dialogue between the Union and the States in matters relating to trade facilitation which is represented by various executive & administrative authorities including representations from limited national trade associations. We request your Honorable to grant representation to NVCC (a regional apex body of trade associations) in the council as “special invitee” to represent the interest of Vidarbha region.
Dipen Agrawal, President urged the Minister that suggestions would be considered & implemented which would be a boon to both trade & commerce as well as citizens of Vidarbha.
In reply Anand ji Sharma, Hon’ble Minister said that the suggestions would be looked in to maximum possible and considered in the interest of the Vidarbha. Prominently present were Anees Ahmed, Ramkrishna Ojha, Prakash Wadhwani, Shreegopal Soni, Rohit Bajaj, Shailendra Manavat, Rohit Agrawal, Sudhir Paliwal, Hemant Gandhi, Mayur Panchmatia, Raju Vyas, Manubhai Soni, Sachin Puniyani, Pankaj Shah. states in a press note issued by Hon. Secretary Hemant Gandhi.
