Two mega industrial units on the anvil in J&K

Two mega industrial units will be set up in Jammu and Kashmir in the near future to give fillip to industrialisation and to generate employment in the state, official sources said.
The State Industries and Commerce Department has already received two proposals from the Centre to set up a steel manufacturing unit and a mega food park in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, the sources said.
Both the units will be set up in the Lassipora Industrial Estate in Pulwama and the government has identified 30 hectares of land for the projects, they said.
The state government has been striving for large investments from the corporate sector to give fillip to industrialisation and to generate employment for skilled and unskilled workforce of the state.

The sources said many industrial giants have established their units here and are already looking for expansion.
Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd began phase-one commercial production at its unit at Samba in Jammu in August 2006 with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore.

The pharma major has decided to invest another Rs 100 crore on expansion, upgradation and modernisation of the unit which manufactures 140 types of drug, they said. The unit spread over 11 hectares contributes a fifth of the group's annual turnover of nearly Rs 1,500 crore, the company says.
Other pharmaceutical firms like Sun Pharmaceuticals, Dabur India, Medley Pharmaceuticals and Indo-Swift Pharmaceuticals have also set up their units here.

Apart from the pharmaceutical companies, Berger Paints, Kangaroo Industries and Priya Gold Biscuits have also set up their manufacturing units in the state.
The state government is making every effort to establish such projects in the state to boost the economy.
Last year, several corporate bigwigs including then Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Manglam Birla, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Bajaj Auto MD Rajeev Bajaj visited the state as part of a delegation headed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Tata had expressed his desire to expand his group's activities in the state, saying the doors were open for India Inc to bring investments.