Centre yet to give final nod for KBIC, Global City projects, says Minister

The Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor project (KBIC) and the industrial smart city project that is being developed at Palakkad as part of it will be used to develop Kerala as a hi-tech manufacturing, Rajeeve tells Assembly. The Minister adds that most of the required land has been acquired

The State intends to utilise the Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor project (KBIC) and the industrial smart city project that is being developed at Palakkad as part of it, to develop Kerala as a hi-tech manufacturing hub in the country, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said in the House on Thursday. He was replying to a calling attention motion by K.K. Shailaja on the need to expedite the KBIC project.

He said that though Kerala was a small State, its contribution to the medical devices industry in the country was 24%. The KBIC project and the industrial smart city that would come up at Palakkad would be used to leverage this advantage of the State.

Priorities

The networking of the industries and other industrial parks in the catchment area was also being taken up with the hope that the KBIC project could get extended to Mangaluru in future. The industrial smart city proposed at Palakkad would prioritise food processing, pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals, botanical products, textiles, non-metallic mineral products, rubber-plastic products etc.

That said, the Centre was yet to give the final nod for the KBIC project even though the State had already completed all requirements, including land acquisition.

The project was jointly undertaken by the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, along with the State government.

Master plan approved

The master plan of the project had already been approved and in February this year, the project also received environmental clearance. The State had already invested 50% of the project’s equity in the acquisition of some 1,700 acres. All land acquisition, except about 240 acres, has been completed, Mr. Rajeeve said.

He said that there was also no clarity from the Centre regarding the Global City project, proposed as an extension of KBIC or the early bird project of KBIC at Ayyampuzha in Ernakulam, where the government had already acquired 358 acres of land at ₹840 crore, with KIIFB aid.

The project was originally conceived as Global Industrial Finance and Trade City (GIFT city) but its name was changed to Global City as there is already a GIFT city in Gujarat. In January last year, the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust, which is in charge of the project, advised the consultancy executing the project to stop the work. But the State will go ahead with the land acquisition for the project, Mr. Rajeeve said.

Published - October 10, 2024 08:56 pm IST