UP govt looks to boost exports of handloom, carpets and brassware

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Uttar Pradesh, which is targetting to double merchandise exports to Rs 3 trillion in the near future, is looking to boost exports of handloom, carpets and brassware from the landlocked state.

Varanasi, Bhadohi, Mirzapur and Moradabad are patently identified with the production and export of handloom, carpets and brassware, respectively. About a dozen UP cities figure in the list of 43 centres of export excellence in India as identified by the Narendra Modi government. These include Moradabad, Varanasi, Bhadohi, Malihabad, Kanpur, Agra, Firozabad, Saharanpur, Mirazpur, Noida, among others.

UP Industrial Development Minister Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’ said UP has large potential to emerge as a major export hub in India. “We are committed to developing UP as an export hub and the state government is standing firmly with exporters and entrepreneurs in this regard.”

Meanwhile, a senior UP government official said the notified export oriented areas will have priority access to export promotion corpus under the flagship Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme. “We have increased merchandise exports from Rs 89,000 crore to Rs 1.57 trillion over the span of 5-6 years. Now we are targetting to hit the exports volume figure of Rs 3 trillion,” he added.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is laying emphasis on exporting traditional products under the one district one product (ODOP) scheme by improving upon the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ matrix.

With the establishment of dry ports and opening of a water route between Varanasi and Haldia, the government has made new vistas of investment, the official noted. 

Besides, the state is working on faster implementation of investment projects totalling almost Rs 35 trillion netted at the recent UP Global Investors Summit (GIS) 2023.

While UP is targetting to become a $1-trillion economy, it is looking to build upon its strength of expressways and slew of international airport projects. Moreover, the Yogi government has introduced the concept of dry ports through the UP Warehousing and Logistics Policy 2022 to facilitate transportation of export cargo to sea ports.

A dry port is an inland port where customs formalities between the exporter and the importer are completed before containers are dispatched to ports. Operational dry ports in UP include Moradabad Rail Linked Joint Domestic and Exim Terminal; Rail Linked Private Freight Terminal and Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Kanpur; and ICD at Dadri Terminal.

A Multi Modal Logistics Hub (MMLH) at Dadri and Multi Modal Transport Hub (MMTH) at Boraki (Greater Noida) are being developed. India’s first ‘Freight Village’ is being developed on 100 acres in Varanasi, which will serve as a trans-shipment hub for inbound and outbound cargo, connecting UP’s export centres to the ports of eastern India.