November 21, 2008

6 projects under IIUS approved

Projects Today reported that central government has approved 6 projects entailing a cost of INR 373.35 crore, including a grant of INR 247.8 crore, under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme.

The projects include
1) Industrial cluster at Chhindwara
2) Engineering cluster in Maharashtra
3) Ready made garments and handloom cluster in Madhya Pradesh
4) Auto cluster at Jharkhand
5) Industrial cluster in Uttar Pradesh

These projects will be executed by special purpose vehicles by involving local industry associations. They are aimed at improving competitiveness of clusters by providing infrastructure, training centre, weavers' workstation, display and R&D centre and hazardous waste management facilities.

So far, 26 projects with total cost of INR 1,766.18 crore, involving central grant of INR 952.1 crore have been sanctioned under IIUS. However, 18 out of these are in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal

Government officials said that "In order to correct this skewed pattern of sanction, the department of industrial policy & promotion obtained the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for sanctioning 6 additional projects in industrially less developed states."

Under IIUS, launched in 2003, centre provides assistance up to 75% of the project cost subject to a ceiling of INR 50 crore for each project.