Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urges faster land allotment and infrastructure progress in the expanding National Industrial Corridor Development Programme, aiming to boost manufacturing, employment, and urban growth across major transport routes.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has pressed India’s industrial corridor authorities to speed up land allotment, infrastructure delivery and factory roll-outs as the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme gathers pace. At a review meeting on Monday, she urged officials and state governments to move faster on the basic building blocks needed for manufacturing, including land, utilities, connectivity and approvals.
The scale of the programme is now becoming clearer. According to the figures presented at the meeting, 469 plots covering about 5,348 acres have been allotted so far, with an estimated investment potential of ₹2.21 lakh crore and the scope to create around 1.29 lakh jobs. Of the units that have received land, 134 are already producing goods, while 95 are under construction. Work is under way on 20 approved projects across 13 states and seven industrial corridors.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has so far released ₹16,172.95 crore to the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust, with ₹14,569.97 crore passed on to project-level special purpose vehicles for execution, according to the report. The review also highlighted four industrial smart cities that have already reached production: Dholera, Shendra-Bidkin, Greater Noida and Vikram Udyogpuri.
Sitharaman also pushed for closer coordination between freight, industry, railways and expressways, describing the framework as FIRE Corridors. She told states to tackle persistent bottlenecks around land acquisition, road and rail links, power and water access, statutory clearances and the authority given to project special purpose vehicles. The meeting also examined the Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojana, a newer plan to build 100 ready-to-use industrial parks. States have submitted 87 proposals for just 20 places in the first round, underlining demand for plug-and-play industrial land.
Officials say the broader NICDP is designed to build greenfield industrial smart cities along major transport routes and boost manufacturing, employment and urban development. The programme spans 11 corridors, including the Delhi-Mumbai and Chennai-Bengaluru routes, and earlier reporting has shown that phase-one cities have already drawn substantial private investment, with momentum in sectors such as electric vehicles and semiconductors.
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