The government of India is making a considerable amount of effort to give a much needed boost to the economic recovery. A part of these efforts is the revised policy structure, which when packaged with the appropriate infrastructural and industrial ecosystem, gave Madhya Pradesh the backing to emerge as an automobile and ancillary hub of central India.
With more than 10 OEMs, 2770 engineering manufacturers, and 200 auto component manufacturers present, MP generates employment for more than 200,000 technical professionals. A major role in this ecosystem is played by the region’s skill development institutes, and the government stands behind each of them. On one hand there is the Indo-German Tool Room, on the other hand there is the Pithampur Auto Cluster Ltd. (PACL), the MSME Technology Centre in Bhopal, and the Central Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institute, Budni.
As a result of an intensive infra set up, Pithampur and Mandideep auto clusters host numerous big and small MSMEs, which yielded auto exports worth USD 26.24 million from MP in FY 2021-22.
MP enjoys effortless connectivity with large markets and major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Kolkata. It boasts of a well-developed infrastructure enjoying 25,800 MW of surplus power, 95+ industrial areas with more than 2,00,000 acres of total land bank, 1000 MCM water reserved for industry. Notably, the state enjoys 6 ICDs which connect the state to major ports of India, thereby, encouraging exports. It also has seamless air and rail connectivity which increases the export potential of the state multifold and enables smooth functioning supply chains to and from the state.
NATRAX
NATRAX is the flagship project of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is a state-of-the-art automotive testing and certificate centre in MP, spread across an area of 1200 hectares with 11.3 kms of test track with an investment of INR 1653 Crores. It has 14 types of test tracks including vehicle dynamics, fatigue and NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) testing facilities, which are used by luxury auto manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Tesla, for high speed testing (HST) of their cars, which cannot be measured on any other Indian test tracks.
The tracks can be used for development of prototype cars according to Indian conditions. Vehicles can achieve a maximum speed of 375 kmph on curves with steering control since the tracks have less banking on ovals, also making them one of the safest test tracks globally.
