Invest Karnataka 2016: Government plans to draw in Rs 3 trillion this year itself
Bengaluru: With a bevy of Indian industry giants by his side and some 1,000 exhibitors and 4,000 business delegates in front of him, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will on Wednesday have his best chance, half-way into his tenure, to shed his ‘anti-industry’, ‘anti-urban’ tag and draw in Rs 3 lakh crore -- for Bengaluru and Karnataka.
Two days ahead of the Invest Karnataka 2016 meet, Mr. Siddaramaiah made it clear he intends to grab the chance – and big investments – with both hands. “We aim to attract Rs 5 trillion in investments into the state over the next three years, and create 15 lakh jobs,” he said, meeting with newspaper editors on Monday.
Of that, the government plans to draw in Rs 3 trillion this year itself, more than double the investments proposed during the last investors’ meet during the B.S. Yeddyurappa regime. “Given the thriving ecosystem, it’s a realistic expectation”, he said confidently.
The government is hoping to mobilise investments for at least 116 projects identified by the infrastructure and industries departments, he said, adding that several of them would be announced during the 3-day event.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said his government had cleared Rs. 1.3 trillion in investments since coming to power and that these were at different stages of implementation. He was confident the state would reach targets set for 2014-19 in his new industrial policy a year earlier, delivering industrial growth at a 12 percent clip.
The CM hasn’t put a wrong foot forward so far. The event will be opened by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Minister for Roads and Shipping Nitin Gadkari, in a signal that Siddaramaiah does not want to let politics come in the way of development. Neither will the city’s perennial traffic problem – for all roads leading to the venue, Palace Grounds, have been given a quick make-over. And Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande has championed Karnataka as an investment destination around the globe, drawing delegations from several countries.
Although not explicit about it, Mr. Siddaramaiah also seemed clear about what kind of investments he wanted to come in: infrastructure investments for Bengaluru – a 70-km ring road around the city, alternative roads to the airport and the like -- and industrial development investments in 14 sectors, from defence to textiles, for the rest of the state, throughout which, additional chief secretary K. Ratnaprabha said, the government had a ready land bank of over 26,000 acres.
The government has already cleared a Coca-Cola plant, allotted land for a rail coach factory and a textiles park in Yadgir district; it has decided to set up a National Investment Manufacturing Zone in Kalaburgi; and investments worth '900 crore have been proposed for Belagavi, she added.
