Centre announces Rs 250-cr package for Uttarakhand

With an aim to boost growth, the Centre has announced a series of new sops with an estimated cost Rs 250 crore for Uttarakhand. These include a textile park, two spice parks, two convention centres and horticulture cold- storage chains.

“We have brought new schems to boost growth in Uttarakhand with an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore. We have also held talks for increasing investments and FDI in the state,” said Anand Sharma, Union commerce, industry and textiles minsiter, after holding talks with Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and industrialists here yesterday.

Under the new announements, a textile park would be set up in Udhamsingh Nagar district with an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore.

The Centre would fund 40 per cent of the total cost of the proposed textile park. A total of 40 textile parks have been sanctioned under the 11th five year plan in the country, said Sharma.

Two spice parks would also be developed in the hill state — one in Sitarganj in Udhamsingh Nagar district and the other in Majrigrant in Dehradun district. While the spice park at Sitarganj, which is an Assembly constituency of the chief minister, will be set up at 15 hectares of land while the Majrigrant park will come up at 10 hectares area. The total amount of Rs 15 crore for the two parks would be funded by the Centre. “We have found that organic spices like ginger and turmric are in good demand in national and internation markets,” he said.

The Centre would also set up three textile skill training centres in Uttarakhand at a cost of Rs 100 crore. Nearly 15,000 people will be trained in these three centres — Roorkee, Dehradun and Haldwani in five year period, Sharma said. 75 per cent of the total cost would be borne by the Centre and the rest will be arranged by the state government.

Two convention centres have also been sanctioned in the hill state with international standards for holding seminars, exhibitions and meetings at industrial hubs of Haridwar and Pantnagar. It has been decided to set up these convention centre under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

The Centre has also sanctioned two sheep and wool conservation centres at Uttarakashi and Rudraprayag districts, said Sharma. A road overbridge will be constructed for the better movement of industrial goods at the Industrial town of Pantnagar with the assistance of Concord.

Sharma said the Centre would develop integrated cold storage chains in the hill state to boost the horticulture sector. For these storages, refrigerated transportation system would be provided, he said.