The centre has come up with one of the most brilliant idea of creating 12 new industrial cities. The project is estimated to cost around 28 thousand crore rupees and is expected to initially provide direct ten lakh jobs besides millions of indirect jobs. According to a conservative estimate, the project should generate about 20 to 22 billion dollars worth investment. This estimate, however, is extremely conservative and over a period of time these industrial cities would be an essential part to take India to a ten trillion dollar GDP, a milestone that should put India into direct competition with China for the world’s second-largest economy after the United States of India( USA).
The industrial cities are proposed to come up in Dholera city of Gujarat, Vikram Udyogpuri, Gaya in Bihar, Orvakal and Kopparthy in Andhra Pradesh, Agra and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Khurpia in Uttarakhand, Jodhpur Pali Marwar in Rajasthan, Rajpura Patiala in Punjab, Pallakad in Kerala and Zaheerabad in Telangana.
Did we miss the elephant in the room? Yes, we certainly did. There is no Jammu and Kashmir in this list. Compared to all the states where these industrial cities are coming up J&K is the least industrialised. This was a golden opportunity to bring the economy of J&K at par with that of Punjab, Kerala and Haryana. Why was Jammu and Kashmir not included in the list? We still have thousands of qualified youth and one of the industrial units as per even the most conservative estimate would have ensured one lakh direct jobs. It essentially means that one industrial city would have solved the unemployment issue of the entire union territory.
One really feels sad that why was this golden chance missed. We impress upon Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to personally intervene in this matter and get at least one district each in Jammu as well as Kashmir included in the list of industrial cities to be launched.
We have full hopes that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will personally intervene in the matter and get the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir an industrial city soon. J&K deserves one industrial city like oxygen – Let us provide it one sooner.
