The government of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has earmarked 48,301 kanals of land for the establishment of 42 new industrial estates. According to reports, 3,379 applications for these new estates have already been approved, with a proposed investment of Rs 34,292 crore and the potential to create employment for 1.54 lakh individuals.
As per the official document of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, at present 5294 industrial units are functioning in 67 Industrial Estates developed by SIDCO and SICOP on 37,341 kanals land thereby providing employment to 1.09 lakh people.
Additional 48,301 kanals of land has been earmarked for development of 42 new Industrial Estates. Of these, IRCON and NBCC will be developing 19 new Industrial Estates on priority and draft Memorandum of Understanding is being finalized in this regard by the Industries and Commerce Department.
As per the document, 5327 online applications were received on the Single Window Portal for allotment of land to set up industrial units with investment and employment potential of Rs 65,000 crore and 3.12 lakh persons respectively. Of these, 3379 applications have been approved so far with proposed investment of Rs 34,294 crore and employment potential of 1.54 lakh persons. Moreover, private investment of Rs 1539.87 crore has been grounded during the Financial Year 2022-23 (ending January 2023), out of which Rs 949.21 crore is for 552 units which have commenced productions and operations.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been executed by the Government of J&K UT with the Government of Dubai for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of over Rs 500 crore for development of two Information Technology (IT) towers and a shopping hall.
“J&K Government is in the process of identification of 54 kanals land for IT towers and 100 kanals land for the shopping mall with potential to employee 4500 and 7500 people respectively”, the document said, adding “Apollo Group has also moved papers for establishment of 250 bedded hospital with expected investment of Rs 250 crore and potential of employing 1200 persons”.
The document further revealed that margin money of Rs 765.97 crore was disbursed during the last 4 years (2019-20 to January 2023) under Prime Minister’s Employment Guarantee Programme enabling setting up of 35,648 self-employment units which are providing employment to 3.31 lakh persons. J&K Khadi and Village Industries Board has been able to arrange margin money of Rs 78.63 crore during the last 4 years (2019-20 to January 2023) through authorized banks under Rural Employment Guarantee Programme to 2937 units which have employed 17622 persons.
“The artisans and weavers are availing benefit of 7% interest subvention under the Credit Card Scheme and 2878 cases have been sponsored during 2021-22 and 2413 cases till January 2023”, the document said, adding “1589 cooperatives have benefitted under the scheme Financial Support for Artisan/ Weaver Cooperatives during 2021-22 and 1982 cooperatives have availed benefit during 2022-23 (till January 2023). Moreover, handicrafts exports have increased from Rs. 563.31 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 728.99 crore during current financial year ending January 2023”.
Stating that J&K is the first Union Territory in the country to onboard 167 e-services of 18 departments on Single Window Platform and integrate it with National Single Window Portal of Government of India, the document has mentioned that all the e-services are also integrated with Rapid Assessment System (RAS), Digilocker and National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) portals.
“Industries & Commerce Department envisions doubling investment with emphasis on promotion of indigenous products through GI tagging in global markets in line with One District One Product (ODOP) scheme”, the document said, adding “one lakh products of crafts are targeted to be GI certified by 2030 and 1000 new artisan and weaver cooperatives will be registered and 14,000 cases sponsored under credit card scheme over the next 10 years”.
Moreover, development of six to eight Handicraft & Handloom clusters having export potential is also amongst the priorities of the Government of J&K UT.
