Fast Globalizing City of Nagpur
By Rishi Saraf 20-Nov-2017
From an Orange city to the Tiger Capital to a globalizing city, Nagpur is seeing infrastructure like never before, thanks to extremely strong political will. Sample this:
Aviation: Reliance Dassault JV will start making Falcons & even export from here, phase I to start in Feb 2018. SAB+ Adani JV likely to come here. Air India MRO which is already operating is expected to service 85 aircrafts every year. TAAL makes floor beams for Boeing & Airbus from here.
Electronics: LG is planning to set up a FAB project in JV with Vedanta group at an investment of INR 16,000 crore.
IT: HCL, India’s 4th largest software company launching next month. Infosys would be the next to start operations. Some of the existing players include TCS, TechMahindra, Global Logic, Persistent and Infocepts. With this Nagpuris living in other cities can now consider coming back and the story of MIHAN is gradually materializing.
Food Processing: Utilizing the strength of Vidarbha region in agro produce, Patanjali’s 800 TPD Orange juice plant to start operations by Mar 2018. Their food park at MIHAN will be the biggest in South Asia. It is investing another INR 2,000 crores in neighboring Wardha district at Heti. Another Orange processing plant, a JV of Jain Irrigation & Coca Cola, is coming up at Morshi in neighbouring Amravati district. Nestle is setting up milk processing plant in neighboring Bhandara dist.
Education: AIIMS, IIM, Symbiosys International University, MNLU, IIIT, NIPER, Sanskrit University are in various stages of setting up. It has prestigious institutes like VNIT & LIT. This will help local students who had to go to other cities for their higher studies.
Logistics: Khapri being made into a multi modal logistics hub. MIHAN, Concor, DLI, JNPT all have come up along rail terminal, south of Nagpur. Dry port being made by JNPT at Wardha near Nagpur. This will help imports & exporters. It will give a fillip to Orange, Fruit and vegetable export from the region. Cold storage, warehousing, stuffing- destuffing to be provided here. 6 logistic areas being developed in Nagpur.
Tourism: Nagpur is called the Tiger Capital of India due to the vast Tiger reserves in the region. New entry points to the jungles are being opened from time to time to allow a large number of tourists coming from all over the world. A sea plane service from Nagpur to Tadoba tiger reserve is to start service.
International Co-operation: Delegations from South Korea, Switzerland have visited recently. Singapore govt is interested in making residential smart township. Chinese delegation which visited much earlier felt MIHAN is an ideal location, their focus sectors being residential, commercial, manufacturing of quality furniture, interiors and LED lights.
Travel: MIHAN International Airport tendering to begin in a month. There will be flights operating to various destinations all over the world from here.
Future Travel: Once trials for Hyperloop are conducted successfully in Pune-Mumbai stretch, then Mumbai-Nagpur trial will be done. If implemented it can help travel between Mumbai-Nagpur in about 1hr 15min.
Metro Rail: Being constructed in record time, trials have already been done at MIHAN depot. In phase-II Hingna, Butibori, Kanhan, London street to Amravati road to be connected.
Medical Tourism: National Cancer Hospital & Research Institute has started operations. Indo UK Institute of Health Medicity with an 1100 bedded hospital is coming up at MIHAN & phase I will start in 2019. Suraj Eye Hospital to come up at MIHAN. Nagpur already caters to medical requirements of patients coming from different parts of Central India.
Automobiles: Ceat Tyres has setup a plant at MIHAN which after expansion will make 1 Lakh tyres/day making it biggest single location tyre manufacturing facility in India. Exide to set up a battery plant at Butibori. Mahindra & Mahindra, the world’s biggest tractor manufacturer already has a plant, Ashok Leyland has a plant at neighbouring Bhandara.
Defense: There are Ordinance factories in Nagpur and Bhandara. A large private player Solar Industries is located here.
Pharma: Lupin which is operating at MIHAN is now expanding. US based Awesome products to make OTC products in pharma sector. Pharma companies have evinced interest to relocate from Punjab to Nagpur.
Textiles: There are several leading manufacturers in Nagpur region manufacturing some of the best fabrics. Adjoining district of Amravati is developing into a Textile Hub.
Passenger Hub: Ajni to be made an Inter Modal Hub. 800 crore to be apportioned for it. Design being made by an American architect. Parking being created near Hotel Radisson for 2000 cars & 5,000 two wheelers so that people can park & use Metro to reach MIHAN & Butibori. Cycle tracks being made from Metro stations.
Roads: Outer ring road to be completed by Dec 2018 at a cost of 1,700 crore. Liberty flyover work is in progress. Samruddhi expressway already under implementation between Nagpur & Mumbai which will help farmers send fruits & vegetables within 8 hrs to Mumbai market. Nagpur to be part of Government’s Bharatmala project. It is the zero mile of the country with air, rail & roads from North to South & East to West of India criss-crossing it.
EVs & Green Fuels: 200 electric taxis are plying in the city which will increase to 1,000. E-Rikshaws are already being used. Electric bikes will be introduced in the market next month. First trial of Electric buses using capacitor will be done in Nagpur. Fifty one buses running on Bio-Ethanol will be introduced in Nagpur. Bio-Ethanol from rice-straw, cotton-straw, bamboo will be used. Bikes on bio-ethanol will start running in 1-2 months.
Irrigation: 89 irrigation projects of Nagpur will be approved. INR 40,000 crores to be given to Nagpur region for irrigation. Irrigation through pipe & drip irrigation to be introduced. Zudpi lands to be converted to revenue lands.
(Compiled from speech of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari & other speakers at Global Nagpur Summit 2017 and other developments so far).