Quake-hit industries in Gujarat resume production

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR, JULY 5. More than 70 per cent of the industrial units in Gujarat damaged by the January 26 earthquake have resumed production, the Industries Minister, Mr. Suresh Mehta, claimed here on Wednesday.

Talking to mediapersons after a meeting of the State Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, Mr. Mehta disclaimed the general notion that the earthquake had caused heavy losses to the industries in the State.

Quoting statistics, Mr. Mehta said, contrary to the general belief, study of the financial position of 52 top companies showed that they had actually made 24.8 per cent increase in profit margin in the last financial year compared to the previous year. Even in the January-March quarter of the last financial year, the industrial growth rate was better than the corresponding period in the previous year. Admitting that the earthquake had caused severe damage to the units in the Kutch district, Mr. Mehta said the government was planning several measures to boost industrial production in the region.

He said that even before the Central Government issued the notification on excise duty exemption to industries in Kutch, as announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his Kutch visit last month, the State Government had received more than 100 inquiries from the industrial houses for setting up units in the earthquake-hit district. These included automobile, cement, building materials, construction sector and a host of other industrial units.

For economic revival of the district, the State Government was taking steps to expand and increase the infrastructure facilities in the industrial estates at Bhuj, Anjar and Mandvi and set up a new estate at Bhachau. While the Gandhidham growth centre was being developed to enable the new units procure land easily, the Kandla Free Trade Zone had been converted into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and another SEZ was being proposed in Mundra.

He said these measures would help the new units coming to Kutch to get better infrastructure facilities and obtain land easily.

Claiming that the State continued to make industrial progress despite the earthquake, Mr. Mehta said that during the last decade, the State received applications for setting up 5,584 industrial units with an investment of more than Rs. 1.49 lakh crores. He said more than 3,050 projects with an investment of more than Rs. 49,400 crores had already gone into production while another 1,744 projects with capital investment of over Rs. 81,000 crores were under various stages of implementation.

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Section  : Other States
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