Cabinet may take decision on ADKIC, projects of DMIC

The Cabinet is expected to approve the Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) project, which seeks to boost manufacturing sector in the country.

Besides, the cabinet may also take a decision on four projects under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

"While the ADKIC project will be discussed by the cabinet, projects under DMIC will come up before cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA)," sources said.

The four project which may come up before the CCEA include projects in Greater Noida, Ujjain and Neemrana.

India's ambitious $90-billion DMIC project is aimed at creating mega industrial infrastructure along the Delhi-Mumbai Rail Freight Corridor, which is under implementation. Japan is giving financial and technical aid for the project, which is developed on either side of a 1,483-km stretch running across seven states.

Japan has committed to invest $4.5 billion in this project.

On the other hand, the ADKIC project is the second of its kind on the lines of the DMIC. ADKIC, envisaging a budgetary support of Rs 5,749 crore for the first phase, will be aligned to the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and will be spread across 20 cities in seven states -- Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

"Both the corridors are expected to give a strong boost to the manufacturing, besides generating jobs for the rising number of young people entering the job market," they said.

Dashing hopes of recovery, industrial production contracted by 2.1% in November, the lowest in six months, mainly due to poor performance of manufacturing.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75% of the index, declined by 3.5% in November as against a contraction of 0.8% a year ago.

The sources also said that the CCEA is also likely to be discuss the loan to be given by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP) loan for DMIC project, they added.