"We have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) worth over rupees one lakh crores from national and international investors keen on setting up industries in our state," chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami stated in Mumbai on Monday.
Mr Dhami along with senior officials of his government are in Mumbai for a road show aimed at attracting investors to the Global Investor Summit 2023 to be held in Dehradun on November 8 and 9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest.
Investors from Birmingham and London signed MoUs worth Rs 14,000 cr, UAE ₹20,000 cr, Delhi ₹19,000 cr, Chennai ₹11,000 cr, Bengaluru ₹5,000 cr and Ahmedabad ₹20,000 cr.
Road show in Mumbai
The Mumbai road show was the eighth in a series of such events in India and abroad. The venues included London and Birmingham (UK), Dubai, Abu Dhabi , Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.
Adddressing the Road show today at The Taj, Colaba, Mr Dhami stated that nearly 27 state policies had been revised and fine-tuned with a view to facilitate and help potential investors. “We first studied investment policies of all the states, picked up their best features and practices and formulated our own so as to make them investor friendly and future ready. Today I can proudly say that our packages are better than other states”.
The audience included the who's who of India Inc, including senior officials of the Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, RPG Group and Godrej among others.
Mr Dhami added that there is a misconception that Uttarakhand is a hilly region and huge acres of land would be in short supply for setting up of industrial and manufacturing units. “Let me assure you that before the launch of our Global Investors Summit we have prepared the ground by identifying and earmarking nearly 6,000 acres of land ready and available for investment purposes. We have created a Land Bank for your ready use,” he assured potential investors. Currently 15,000 acres of land in Uttarakhand are in use for industrial units.
The state is hoping to attract investments not only in the tourism and hospitality sectors but also in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, Aayush and Healthcare, IT, power, automobile, food processing, education, real estate and entertainment industries.
Mr Dhami said he had personally met 60 to 70 investors and his team had interacted with over 500 potential investors in Mumbai on this trip alone. Moreover, he had one-on-one meetings lined up with Kumaramangalam Birla, Prakash Hinduja, Sunil Shetty and Rakesh Swami, group president of Godrej among other biggies today.
On Tuesday, a special meeting has been scheduled with representatives of the Bollywood Film Industry.
“Idea is to invite them to set up studios, processing units, Film Training Institutes in Uttarakhand. Already the state is famous for its beautiful, eye catching locations where Bollywood movies are already being filmed. To streamline and facilitate this process further and boost investment in the entertainment sector in Uttarakhand, a special plot of land has been earmarked for setting up of a Film City in Dehradun.”
Dhami to meet film personalities
Film personalities whom he will be meeting on Tuesday include Rakesh Roshan, Manmohan Shetty, Jeetendra of Balaji Films, Tejkaran Bajaj of Jio studios, Vinod Bhanushali, Vivek Agnihotri, Ramesh Thorani, Vikram and Mahesh Bhatt.
He further noted that Uttarakhand’s investment environment and eco system are peaceful. “Our Motto is ‘Peace to Prosperity’. There are no labour issues or union strikes in the state. No law and order problems. We are logistically well connected to Delhi and NCR; there are 40 flights everyday from different cities to Uttarakhand…Plus we are offering the lowest power tariff in the country”.
The state is also offering 50 per cent capital subsidy for hospitality projects and 100 per cent for tourism products and services. “Prime Minister Modi has already declared that the third decade of the 21st century will be Uttarakhand Ka Dashak or Decade’! Our entire approach is focussed on ‘Peace of Doing Business’ and not just ‘ease of doing business’. And we hope to achieve this with a single window portal”, Dhami said.