Distt Strategy Devpt Plan suggests ‘sunrise’ projects
| Date :05-Jan-2024 |
By Kartik Lokhande
The first-ever District Strategy Development Plan (DSDP) prepared by the Indian Institute of Management-Nagpur has suggested several ‘sunrise’ projects in Nagpur and surroundings to achieve the goal of propelling the district and region’s economy to a region making substantial contribution to the State’s dream of becoming a $1 Trillion economy. Among these ‘sunrise’ projects are a large refinery petrochemical complex near Nagpur, a large integrated steel plant at Gadchiroli, bigger commando training institute at Gadchiroli, a textile cluster under the Union Ministry of Textiles, a ferro-alloy cluster near Bhandara to ensure use of 80 per cent of manganese ore for value addition, fertiliser complex integrated with refinery and coal gasification plant, warehousing-logistics-distribution hub near Sindi in Wardha district to make the best use of Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, and big am usement park in Nagpur district. The projected budget for investment in these projects is estimated to be well over Rs 50,000 crore. Interestingly, the DSDP is prepared for the period up to 2027-28. Citing the techno-feasibility report of the Engineers India Limited, the DSDP has proposed a large refinery petrochemical complex project entailing investment between Rs 52,000 crore and Rs 65,000 crore.
While pitching for the project, which the strategist in DSDP team Pradeep Maheshwari has been championing for quite some time, it is stated that tjhe project could create job opportunities for local population contributing to employment growth and economic stability. Besides, refinery can attract other industries reling on petrochemicals as raw materials. As far as steel plant is concerned, the DSDP projects required expenditure for 1 million tonne of steel production to be around $300 million. “There is ready availability of raw materials for steel production. Instead of trying to compete with large steel mills, Nagpur could focus on a niche market viz. specialising in producing high-quality steel for construction industry,” states the DSDP. Further, it mentions integrated steel plant at Gadchiroli tiwht 5 MMTPA capacity as ‘sunrise’ project. It adds that Nagpur being a part of the industrial capital State and witnessing steady investments in IT and infrastructure, can benefit fromm budget of Rs 400 crore invested in semiconductor chip manufacturing unit. Investment in the range of Rs 300 crore to Rs 500 crore can be made to set up a facility to manufacture high-density battery cells for electric vehicles in Nagpur. An amount of Rs 313.6 crore can be invested in integrated dairy development project.
Aerospace training and maintenance-repair-overhaul (MRO) facility also has been treated as ‘sunrise’ project with proposed budget in the range of Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore. To provide a boost to tourism development, it is proposed to set up an Energy Park with 121 ft tall statue of Lord Hanuman, solar power plant, a windmill, a biogas plant, and other renewable energy sources with total investment of Rs 125 crore. The other projects suggested in the DSDP include agro-waste paper recycling plant at Nagpur with investment of Rs 50 crore, agrochemical manufacturing unit with investment in the range of Rs 50 crore to Rs 150 crore, fruit and vegetable processing unit (Rs 11 crore), vermicompost units to produce organic fertilizer with investment of Rs 3 lakh in each of the units, strawberry cultivation project. Methane Condensing Unit has been proposed to reduce energy consumption and emissions from coal mines in Nagpur district, with an investment of Rs 15 crore suggested in one such plant at Saoner facility. Projects with focus on cloud computing, artificial intelligence and bots in banking and financial institutions, innovative mobile mental health unit etc also have been suggested. With all these, the DSDP has suggested that districts in Vidarbha region must have 30 per cent green electricity for which generate-and-use policy should be promoted.