Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor | Approved

[GJ10]

DMIC modelled along Tokyo-Fukuoka

AHMEDABAD: There is a reason why Japan is so much interested in Gujarat. The biggest foreign delegation at the Vibrant Gujarat summit will be from Japan which is helping build the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

And it is not just because 40 per cent of DMIC falls in Gujarat. More importantly, Gujarat has a ring of ports to fuel an industrial boom in closely-linked clusters.

Just like the Pacific Belt Region through the Tokyo-Fukuoka corridor in Japan, along which DMIC has been modelled. The cluster based develop-ment of Tokyo-Fukuoka corridor is what catapulted Japan from an agrarian economy to a global economic superpower.

In 1960, the development of the Pacific Belt Region was initiated. There were 18 ports which were re-developed and today about 70 per cent of Japan's industrial output comes from here, housing all big names in Japan Inc. which felt comfortable in the city regions' where they were located. They also served as global gateways with high speed
linkages, airports, container ports and other world-class infrastructure. It is along this corridor that cities like Nagoya, Osaka, Keihin, Hanshin, Chukyo, Kitakyushu, Kayo, Tokai, Setonai, Shinkansen, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Kyoto, Kobe etc are located.

[Euromast]

Railways invites EoIs for 20 logistic parks

KOLKATA: The railways ministry has invited applications for the development of multi-modal logistic parks proposed to be set via public-private
partnerships. The Railway Board on behalf of the ministry recently invited expressions of interest (EoI) for such projects. These parks will be built along the railways' much-vaunted flagship project, the 3,300-km Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
The logistic parks project consists of a few mega multi-modal logistic parks. These will be in the nature of hubs providing state-of-the-art integrated logistic facilities. They will also be equipped with mechanised handling and intelligent inventory management at select locations along the DFC. This is likely to reduce the overall logistical cost for customers.

The overall plan is to set up some 20 logistic parks, which are estimated to involve an investment of about Rs 10,000 crore. The railways' is keen to identify and shortlist interested partners that will be willing to participate in the development of these parks

[IndiansUnite]

Development on Gujarat leg of DMIC soon
Centre issues notification to start developing 309 kms

Ahmedabad: Delhi-Mumbai Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Ltd managing director VK Kaul on Monday declared at a Vibrant Gujarat seminar that out of 565 km long portion passing through Gujarat, a notification to start developing 309 km area of the freight corridor has been issued by the Central government. “Our planning is over. Survey and data collection too have ended. By early February work will start,” Kaul said.

Earlier, Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) CEO AK Sharma said that the state government has already put Dholera SIR, to come up on the western side of the freight corridor, on the fast track by acquiring 26,000 hectares (ha) of land out of a total of 36,000 ha. “We have also acquired 17,000 ha for the new international airport near the SIR,” he said.

[TOI]

[Chrisel]

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor in troubled waters
Tuesday, 26 May 2009

www.SteelGuru.com

Projects Today reported that the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project being executed by DMIC Development Corporation has hit a road block, with Japan setting tough conditions to finance the project.

The conditions include a comprehensive sovereign guarantee by India that will also extend to penal interest and overdue charges in case of late repayments as well as payment of components.

Following these developments, the Central Government is reportedly looking out for additional partners from countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Korea.

However, the 1,483 kilometer long corridor costing USD 90 billion will pass through 5 states with a series of industrial zones that will be serviced by a string of dedicated freight expressways, rail links and other facilities.

(Sourced from Projects Today)

[Chrisel]

Conversely, here's a positive development :

Madhya Pradesh, IL&FS tie up to develop industrial zones
26 May 2009

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government has signed an agreement with IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corp (IIDC) for the development of three
industrial zones under the central government's ambitious Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project.

This project will prove to be a milestone in the future industrial development of the state, Minister for Commerce, Industry and Employment Kailash Vijayvargiya said Tuesday.

The agreement was signed Monday between Madhya Pradesh Trade and Investment Facilitation Corp (Trifac) and IIDC.

Under the deal, Trifac and its partner firm will jointly work to develop three industrial areas - Ratlam-Nagda Investment Region, ShajapurDewas Industrial Area and Neemuch-Nayagaon Industrial Area, an official of the state Industry department told IANS.

"Trifac has appointed IIDC as the project management consultant for the development of the investment nodes as per the conditions laid down in the agreement," said the official, who did not want to be identified.

The 1,483-km long DMIC, which is expected to cost $90 billion, passes through five states with a series of industrial zones that will be serviced by a string of dedicated freight expressways, rail links and other facilities.

According to government reports, once the DMIC project is complete, the employment potential will double and the industrial output will go up three-fold in five years.

[Chrisel]

A more comprehensive article about the latest turn of events:



DMIC project hits funding roadblock
May 25, 2009

http://www.financialexpress.com

New Delhi: India's largest infrastructure project, the $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, which was initiated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, appears to be heading for a dead-end, with Japan setting tough conditions to finance the project.

The conditions include a comprehensive sovereign guarantee by India that will also extend to penal interest and overdue charges in case of late repayments as well as payment of components, including taxes and duties.

The Indian government is, instead, mulling roping in more partner countries to get the project going.

DMIC Development Corporation, the company undertaking this project, has a minority ownership of the government. Hence India had initially refused to provide any guarantee for the Japanese loan terming it as a ‘commercial loan’. The government has a 49% stake in the corporation, while infrastructure companies private firms IL&FS and IDFC own 41% and 10%, respectively.

In its negotiations with Japan, India had instead suggested that it would give a loan to the state-owned India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL), which will then on-lend this amount to the DMIC project. Since there is an automatic sovereign support for any loans raised by government-owned companies, this would have, from India’s point of view, offered a similar comfort level. The other advantage is that it would have cut the cost of providing the guarantee that a loan of such size entailed.

However, Japan in the latest round of discussions has said routing of the loan through IIFCL was not acceptable to it. The chief representative of JBIC, through which Tokyo has supported the project, Kurihara told FE, “We are still negotiating the loan agreement with the government of India and the guarantee part of it. (India) has provided the guarantee letter but the guarantee is very limited. So we are insistent to change the coverage (of guarantee)”.

According to him, besides principal and nominal interest, the guarantee should also cover default cover, penal interest and tax imposed on transactions in India. “It is a very important project for Japan and it should not get stuck,” he said.

But New Delhi feels that the conditions that Tokyo has set are so tough that it is considering involving more partner countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Korea. Noting that progress has come to a standstill due to the face-off, India is also considering taking e responsibility of shelling out the full cost of the fund, government officials said.

Though the final call on roping in more partner countries will be a ‘political decision at the highest level’, such a scenario cannot be ruled out either, an official said.

The 1,483 km-long corridor will pass through six states with a series of industrial zones that will be serviced by a string of dedicated freight expressways, rail links and other facilities.

While the finance ministry has only allocated a token Rs 330 crore, a sum of $150 million (about Rs 750 crore ) is to be spent for the project development fund. JBIC was to pitch in with $75 million for the revolving fund.

This means once the projects are launched and bidders are chosen, they will pay DMIC Development Corporation, which in turn will use these funds for further planning and implementation.

India and Japan had inked an MoU in December 2006 to jointly develop DMIC, when Manmohan Singh visited Tokyo. Originally, the cost of developing the project was thought to be only $20 billion. But later on due to several additions, it has risen to $90 billion.

India had sent a delegation of representatives from six states forming part of the corridor—Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra—to Japan in February 2009 to showcase the investment possibilities in their individual states.

While India has finalised 15 ‘early bird’ infrastructure development projects in Haryana, Gujarat and MP, Japan has listed five. The government also has appointed renowned international consultants—Scott Wilson, Halcrow, Lea Associates and Jurong—for this corridor

[vaibhav]

WHT HPNED TO THIS PROJECTS GUYS
NO NEW UPDATES

THIS PROJECT IS VERY VERY IMP FOR DEV. OF INDIA

[qwertyasd]

what i last heard was that the delhi-gujarat part is commercially feasible and not the gujarat-jnpt... tokyo only wants to fund delhi-gujarat section.

modi has already started building out highways from the gujarat terminal to all the ports in his state expecting the corridor to end in gujarat. this will bring huge traffic to gujarat ports - away from jnpt.

The bungling mah. govt seems to be dropping the ball on this one as well.

[qwertyasd]

Here is the link to the article that suggests what i said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/4642523.cms

Port Pipavav could well emerge as Gujarat's answer to Mumbai as India's ultimate
'gateway port'.

The proposed Central Spine, a 10-lane road linking Ahmedabad and Pipavav, will provide the much-needed hinterland connectivity. Out of 287 kms, Gujarat intends to build the stretch up to Bhavnagar (152 km) and is seeking Central support for the Bhavnagar-Pipavav (135 km) belt.

This will help the port cater to northern hinterland using the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). The port's main business will of course come from the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR). Luck turned Pipavav's way after doubts arose earlier this year over feasibility of a new port at Dholera.

Nikhil Gandhi, who built this port, later sold his stake to Denmark-based AP Moller Maersk, the world's third largest port operator.

But, connectivity remained an issue. A study by IIM-A in 2007 said bad roads were one of the main reasons Gujarat's own trade preferring Mumbai to ship their containerised cargo.

"Connectivity to Pipavav will significantly increase cargo movement from north India," Gandhi told TOI. He said there would be significant savings for exporters and importers, if they chose Pipavav over Mumbai.

In fact, both Mundra and Pipavav ports, which started operations in 1998, will have locational advantage over Mumbai in terms of attracting business from the DMIC. Mundra today does at least four times more business than Pipavav because of better connectivity.

"Pipavav is better located as it is closer to Mumbai. The proposed 10-lane highway will make an even more attractive proposition for our customers located in north and west India," said Ravi Gaitonde, COO, Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd.

[GJ10]

Originally Posted by qwertyasd

what i last heard was that the delhi-gujarat part is commercially feasible and not the gujarat-jnpt... tokyo only wants to fund delhi-gujarat section.

modi has already started building out highways from the gujarat terminal to all the ports in his state expecting the corridor to end in gujarat. this will bring huge traffic to gujarat ports - away from jnpt.

The bungling mah. govt seems to be dropping the ball on this one as well.

Yeah, I cant seem to find the article right now, but if i remeber correctly, it said that the Dedicated Freight Corridor will now only run from Delhi to Vadodara, In all honesty though, its quite easy to see the logic in bypassing Bombay if the Indian heartland can be just as easily reached by the Ports of Gujarat alone.

Obviously, not great news for Bombay/Maharashtra though.

[IndiansUnite]

The truncated route would be a bummer. Is this the interview article you're talking about GJ10 and Qwerty?

http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/ne...s-india/402134

The article has a link to the actual video of the interview with Forbes' India editor.

anyways the MEA - SM Krishna will be in Tokyo this Friday. I hope this is more than a chai-biscuit discussion and something tangible comes out of this visit.

Krishna to visit Japan this week for strategic dialogue

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister SM Krishna is set to visit Japan this week for the third annual strategic dialogue in which the Dedicated Freight Corridor and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) projects will come up for discussion.

The ministry of external affairs said Mr Krishna will meet his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone and call on Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso during his two-day trip starting on July 3. During the strategic dialogue, the two foreign ministers are set to review the progress on the Dedicated Freight Corridor and $90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, which are two big-ticket infrastructure projects that the Manmohan Singh government is keen to push forward. Even though the projects are running behind schedule, sources said that there should be good movement soon.

The foreign ministers’ meeting also comes after the India-Japan task force meeting on the two projects, which took place in February. And this will be the first high-level discussion between the two sides on the two infrastructure projects after the Manmohan Singh government was sworn in for a second term.

Japan has already committed to an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of Rs 17,045 crore for the first phase of the Dedicated Freight Corridor from Rewari-Vadodara sector and had committed a similar loan for the rest of the stretch of the Western corridor. Discussions are likely to revolve around this issue too. The western corridor of the Dedicated Freight Corridor is seen as a flagship project between the two countries.
...
..

[IndiansUnite]

India, Japan agree to fast track work on freight, industrial corridors

Tokyo, July 3 (ANI): India and Japan on Friday agreed to take steps to fast track work on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project.

The decision was announced at a joint press conference by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries-Hirofumi Nakasone and S.M. Krishna-after the conclusion of the two-day Third Japan-India Strategic Dialogue here.
...

Amitabh Kant may head DMIC project

NEW DELHI: Amitabh Kant, the man behind the ‘Incredible India’ campaign, may soon be appointed to lead one of the country’s
largest industrial-cum-infrastructure projects — Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

Mr Kant, who is known for his tenure as joint secretary in the tourism ministry for almost six years beginning 2001, may be appointed as the CEO of the newly-created DMIC Development Corporation (DMICDC), the nodal agency to handle the proposed $90-billion project in collaboration with Japanese government.

According to an official in the ministry of personnel, who did not wish to be identified, the order of his appointment may be issued soon as the government has now decided to move ahead with the project which got stuck last year over the delay on Japan's release of a part of the project development fund (PDF) worth $250 million, or Rs 1250 crore.
...

[yashchauhan]

Originally Posted by IndiansUnite

India, Japan agree to fast track work on freight, industrial corridors




Amitabh Kant may head DMIC project

Thats a very good news cheers.............finally a ray of hope that India can become world's most industrialized nation................!

[yashchauhan]

I being a management student can easily elaborate the effects of tis project on our economy:-

1.Exponential rise in employment

2.Space for easy operation of firms,we shall see Reliance City, Tata city like you see in Japan eg.Toyota City

3.A region to provide sustainable source of revenues like Jamshedpur-Kolkata corridor or Mumbai-Pune corridor but at a much larger scale.

4.Increased foreign investment.

5.Japanese expertise

6.Credit for local businesses.

7.Infrastructure for easy business(a thing that is absent in India).

..........guys this project can easily accelerate the growth of our country to the level that India overshadows China and East Europe!

[dis.agree]

there is no doubt that this would be a big boost to economy if we find some to build this. but it is a big if. clearly india does not have this kind of money. if we leave it to indian railways it would be a few centuries before they allocate all the money through their budgetary process.

so it has to be foreign capital. japan seem to be the hope. we have a joke in investment communities that when japanese are buying it's a clear signal that indices are high and you get out of the market. they don't mind low returns but in this case even they are not willing.

[VaastuShastra]

Percentage of people living in cities:



The hope is that this project will urbanise millions of people in a giant corridor from Delhi to Mumbai - like the Taiheiyo Belt in Japan.



But if India ever wants to urbanise, its the Gangetic plain that needs to become a giant urban belt - from Delhi to Patna to Kolkata:



Bihar and Uttar Pradesh need that kinda development.

[yashchauhan]

It would have been more fruitful to have Delhi-Kolkata corridor because that are has about 65% of our population and that population is skilled,cheap but very very impoverished.Rather than making infrastructure in barren Rajasthan and Kutch they would have been investing where majority of India resides and the results would have been astonishingly high because several times of people could have been engaged in this wave of development.

Guys UP and BIHAR are the to states of India which are still totally untouched by India's booming economy and this is the biggest reason of our growth below double digits.If somehow they are also included we will be top of the world in no time.

[krishnancv]

U.P & Bihar lie in the fertile Ganga region where agriculture thrives and can be developed on a large scale. Industrialization would only kill agriculture. Instead barren lands wili be most suited for Industrial development as they may not be of any other use. If every state goes for Industrializing all its land what will happen to agriculture?

[yashchauhan]

Originally Posted by krishnancv

U.P & Bihar lie in the fertile Ganga region where agriculture thrives and can be developed on a large scale. Industrialization would only kill agriculture. Instead barren lands wili be most suited for Industrial development as they may not be of any other use. If every state goes for Industrializing all its land what will happen to agriculture?

Every state has a fair share of industrialization and the best example in this case is MAHARSHTRA which is not only a major industrial hub but also also an important agricultural hub.Factories provide high wages ,substantial income and poverty alleviation to the population and I must say that there aren't any good industrial establishments in the region and an economy is always good when it has a mixture of all it sectors in proper proportions be it at city level or at national level...........and BARREN lands can be converted to lush green farms through proper irrigation but they don't provide enough labor and local markets.

[VaastuShastra]

The only areas with a similar population to the Ganges plain, are China's river plains, and Japan's coast. So India should probably look to their experiences at developing these areas, for ideas.

Japan is probably a better example for India, because they have a similar style of government - India probably needs to turn places like Patna, Lucknow and Kanpur into megacities, with big central business districts. The Ganges plain needs to look like the Taiheiyo Belt from orbit. It needs to be linked by a giant transport corridor full of highways, high speed rail, airports, ports, etc - from Delhi to Kolkata.

Here is how it currently looks:



If the Delhi-Mumbai corrdor is successful, there should be a line of bright cities and towns from Delhi, through Rajastan and Gujerat, to Mumbai. But half of India lives in the Ganges plain - so thats where we need a similar corridor most.

Look at western Europe and eastern Asia by comparison: