The Rajya Sabha member, Mr Vijay Darda, has requested the Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, and the Union Heavy Industries Minister, Mr Praful Patel, to initiate steps to develop Nagpur and adjoining industrial areas as an automobile manufacturing hub.

In a letter to Mr Chavan last week, Mr Darda said that Nagpur, with its un-utilised industrial infrastructure at Burtibori and Mihan special economic zone could be transformed into an automobile manufacturing hub, if the Government extended tax and other incentives.

One mother unit in the auto sector could give rise to 300 ancillary units providing thousands of jobs, he said.

Mumbai-pune Crowded

“Vidarbha has remained backward because of Government's apathy in promoting industrialisation by offering special incentive packages. On the other hand, overemphasis on Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nasik belts has resulted in overcrowding there ... investors wanting to come to Maharashtra can not be accommodated in Mumbai-Pune region. The only solution is to offer concessions in backward region of Vidarbha, unmatched by other States like Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu.”

Mr Darda said that Mahindra & Mahindra was looking for a location outside the State to invest around Rs 3,000 crore after its proposal of setting up a plant at Chakan near Pune was dropped because of tax issues. Indo Rama Synthetics was also planning to shift to Tamil Nadu as Maharashtra did not have proper port facilities, Mr Darda said.

In a separate letter to Mr Patel, Mr Darda has suggested that a one-day seminar on automobile industry be organised jointly with the State Government and automobile associations to promote the concept of automobile hub at Nagpur. But before that, the Union Government and the State should work out an attractive incentive package to attract investors to Vidarbha, he said.

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