Gujarat – An Industrial Hub
The state of Gujarat, on the west coast of India- is an important State with a geographical area of 1,96,022 sq.km and population of 483 lakhs as per 2001 census.(presently,it is 600+ lakhs) The state has accelerated its overall economic development during last 44 years and has witnessed several structural changes in economic development.
With a firm focus on making Gujarat a world class state, the Gujarat Government is pushing ahead with its agenda of making the state a land of opportunities.
Game Changers of Gujarat:
- Gift City:
GIFT City is an integrated development on 886 acres of land with 62 mn sq. ft. of Built Up area which includes Office spaces, Residential Apartments, Schools, Hospital, Hotels, Clubs, Retail and various Recreational facilities, which makes this city a truly “Walk to Work” City. GIFT City consists of a conducive Multi-Service SEZ (Special Economic Zone) and an exclusive Domestic Area.
This City is a Vertical City which will optimise land area consumption for development. The City is located on the bank of river Sabarmati connecting the Business capital (Ahmedabad) and Political capital (Gandhinagar) of Gujarat State- The Growth Engine of India.
- DREAM CITY:
A DREAM City is set to come up at Khajod village in southwest Surat. It will not only establish Surat as the world’s largest diamond trading hub, but also drive growth in hospitality, recreation, realty and service sectors among others. India’s second diamond trading centre, the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB), is scheduled to operate from DREAM City.
Investments to the tune of INR 30,000 crore are expected to be pumped into these sectors in DREAM City, which will help Surat attain a higher level of growth on a sustained basis within the next few years.
- Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC)
With a view to providing efficient logistics services, Indian Railways has embarked into a massive investment to create dedicated freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai (Western Dedicated Freight Corridor) and Ludhiana and Howrah (Eastern DFC). A high impact area of within 150 Km distance on both side of the WDFC has been identified as the ‘Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor’ (DMIC). DMIC is intended to be the manufacturing hub serviced with world class infrastructure. Total 24 industrial nodes are identified across the DMIC out of which 6 nodes as enumerated below falls within the State of Gujarat.
- Dholera-Ahmedabad Investment Region
- Vadodara-Ankleshwar Industrial Area
- Palanpur-Mehsana Industrial Area
- Bharuch-Dahej PCPIR and Investment Region
- Surat-Hazira, Industrial Area
- Valsad-Umbergaon Industrial Area
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is conceived as a Model Industrial Corridor of international standards with emphasis on expanding the manufacturing and services base and develop DMIC as the ‘Global Manufacturing and Trading Hub’.
- Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad is the largest city in the State of Gujarat and the 7th largest urban agglomeration in India. It is the second-largest producer of cotton in India. Several business conglomerates such as Adani Group, Reliance Industries, Nirma Group of Industries, Arvind Mills, Claris Life Sciences, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Shell, Vadilal Industries Ltd., Rasna, Bosch Rexroth (Germany), Stork and Rollepaal (Netherland) are present in the district.
The biggest node of the DMIC—the Ahmedabad Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) is also located just 140 kms from Ahmedabad and work on this node is currently underway. Also, Initiatives such as Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar will also place both Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in the same league as international financial hubs such as Dubai and Singapore.
Over the decade, rapid growth in Real Estate residential and commercial projects has pushed the city limits outwards and hence the warehousing hubs too. Starting from Aslali-Kheda, Sanand, we have new areas Changodar-Bavla-Bhayla-Bagodara / Viramgam-Becharaji gradually developing into Warehousing clusters. Now, city outskirts have well developed clusters as shown in map.
Surat
Deemed to be the world’s fastest growing city from 2019 to 2035, Surat is now the commercial and economic centre in South Gujarat. It is also known as Diamond City & Silk City, for its major contribution to National Exchequer by diamond processing Units and textile manufacturing Industries
Surat has established areas like Ichhapore, Bhatpore GIDC, Sachin GIDC, Pipodara where there are concentration of warehouses driven mainly by manufacturing, textile and engineering sector. More recently, 3PL, FMCG, ecommerce and retail big players have had their footprints and other few are in the lookout. The focus area is proximity to Ahmedabad-Mumbai Highway, NH48 on the outskirts of Surat, from Kamrej to Vesma. Soon we may see few well organised logistic parks being launched.
Hazira and Magdalla Ports in the district provide logistic support to the industrial operations in the state with foreign countries. The upgraded Surat airport is envisaged to offer direct air connectivity with important destinations in India and abroad. This is expected to boost commercial activities in the city as well as in the district.
COLD STORAGE CHAIN:
Cold storages form a critical part of the entire supply chain and is a crucial link between the producer and the consumer. In Gujarat, Cold Chain Industry is well developed when concerned with Dairy and Pharmaceutical products, but still there is huge capacity gap as regards other sectors like Horticulture, multiple purposes storage etc. Many cold chain facilities for export oriented produces and Potatoes has already been established but potential for other commodities is still remaining untapped.
With about three million tons of cold chain storage capacity, Gujarat has the fourth highest share of over five per cent in India’s total cold chain storage capacity of about 35 million tons (MT) Gujarat (5.2 per cent) was ranked fourth behind Uttar Pradesh (41 per cent), West Bengal (23 per cent) and Punjab (5.5 per cent) in total share of India’s cold chain storage capacity (Business Standard-2015)
With the emergence of e-commerce and in post-Covid era, there is also an urgent need to establish more temperature controlled warehouses, multi-purpose cold storages across India as presently, about 75 per cent of the current cold storage capacity in India is suitable only for potato storage.
Upgradation of plant & machinery, use of technology, institutional investment and somewhat government support in terms of better infrastructure, financial aids and incentives, identifying new areas, reduction in electricity costs will boost the sector and we will see a new generation of Cold Storage Chains in coming years.
This is an abridged version. To read the full article, click here.
This article has been penned by Rajesh Bothra, Owner of R1 premises, Surat.
