Ex-servicemen to guard Greater Noida industries

The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) would soon engage people with earlier experience of working in the Army to ensure the security of industrial units in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

A decision to spruce up the security arrangement of the industrial hub was taken at a meeting between entrepreneurs and officials of the state government Friday, and it was decided that the ex-servicemen could work in collaboration with local police.

Principal Secretary Surya Pratap Singh of the Infrastructure and Industrial Development Department (IIDD) of the state government said problems in security were being studied, and an action plan was being readied.

"There is a need to fill the gap between perception and reality, and the state government is making sincere efforts to do that," Singh told IANS.

The industrialists expressed concerns over the quality of policing in the area, the reliability of electricity supply, and the availability of public conveyance for employees.

On improving power distribution efficiency, Singh said issues concerning the Noida Power Company Ltd, the local distribution agency, would soon be resolved.

He said GNIDA was going to buy its own buses for use in the Greater Noida area to better public transport.

State government officials said "early bird" projects -- the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), including multi-modal logistics hub at Dadri and multi-modal transit hub at Bodaki, along with the integrated industrial township in GNIDA, and the Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad Investment Region, will make this region the hub of economic activity. It would also emerge as the focal point for export shipment in north India.

Chief Executive Officer of Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) P.C. Gupta said that with around 2,36,000 hectares notified area, YEIDA was the largest industrial authority in Asia and pointed out that under the master plan-2021, 18,450 hectares will be taken up for development, while 23,475 hectares will be developed under master plan-2031.