CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday urged the Centre to take up the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor Project based on the earlier concept and alignment as agreed to by Tamil Nadu.
In the memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister opposed the inclusion of Krishnapatnam Node in Andhra Pradesh in the Corridor as it would adversely affect the long-term interests of the public sector ports — Chennai and Ennore. The Corridor was intended to benefit mainly the States of Tamil Nadu (seven districts), Karnataka (seven districts) and Andhra Pradesh (two districts, one partially).
The Corridor Influence Area has recently been expanded to accommodate Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. This inclusion has distorted the concept of the corridor development and the Corridor Influence Area concept of 75 kms distance on both sides of the National Highway-46 connecting Chennai and Bengaluru, the memorandum said.
The Tamil Nadu government has proposed to create three new manufacturing zones at Vilathikulam in Thoothukudi District (5,780 acres), Katrambakkam in Vellore District (2,150 acres) and Hosur in Krishnagiri District (2,300 acres) having hi-tech common infrastructure facilities. As per existing norms for NIMZ, a minimum area of 12,500 acres is required for NIMZ.
Since it is very difficult to find such large stretches of land contiguously in States like Tamil Nadu, the Centre should relax the area norms and approve the NIMZs as proposed by Tamil Nadu, the memorandum added.
The government of Tamil Nadu has taken the initiative of giving special concessions for industrial units to be set up in the 10 southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
A special package similar to what is being offered for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand by the government of India may be given to these districts.