Finance Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday announced a big push for the development of the Madurai-Thoothukudi Industrial Corridor. The project proposes to create four manufacturing regions, one agri-business region, two business investment regions, a special tourism zone, one rural tourism hub and one knowledge hub. This will attract `1,90,000 crore industrial investment over a period of 10 years.
Presenting the budget for the year 2013-14 in the State Assembly, the Minister said the State government would also create a land bank of 25,000 acres through SIPCOT to attract more industries to the State. A new ship-building yard would be established in Thoothukudi by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) under Public-Private Partnership.
Panneerselvam said a special package of incentives for encouraging investments for the development of the industrially backward districts of southern TN would be announced soon. This is expected to attract more investments and creating more jobs in the southern region.
In Madurai, works would be taken up for the construction of two flyovers at Kaalavasal and Goripalayam at a cost of `130 crore during 2013-2014, he said.
The Minister further said the Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme (TNIPP) with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would commence during 2013-2014. The TNIPP aims at easing some bottlenecks faced by the investors, mainly by policy changes and by correcting infrastructural inadequacies. This would facilitate investment flow of around `770 crore in small and medium infrastructure projects over three years.
“This government has decided to offer a special package of support from 2013-2014, to revitalise the MSME sector ,” he announced.