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J&K LG hopeful of ₹70,000 crore investment within 6 months
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Monday said that a 36-member high powered delegation of investors from the Gulf arrived in Srinagar on Monday and his administration hopeful of attracting investment of more than ₹70,000 crores in the next six months
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Monday said that a 36-member high powered delegation of investors from the Gulf arrived in Srinagar on Monday and his administration hopeful of attracting investment of more than ₹70,000 crores in the next six months. The delegation has come following an invitation extended by Sinha on January 6 when he visited the Dubai Expo to attract investments in the union territory.
“The industries department has organised a meet with the delegation on Tuesday and I hope of fruitful results for the people of J&K,” he said, while responding to media queries here.
He added that so far, proposals worth more than ₹26,000 crore have been sanctioned and land has been allotted to them.
The principal secretary of the industries and commerce department and other government officials will hold threadbare discussions with the visiting delegation showcasing investment opportunities to them.
It may be recalled here that during the Dubai Expo, the J&K government had signed at least six agreements in potential sectors real estate, infrastructure, tourism, healthcare, food processing and others, generating large amount of investment. Also, several UAE-based companies like Al Maya group, MATU investments LLC, Century Financial, Noon e-commerce and others signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the J&K administration. Apart from this, letter of intent (LoI) was also signed with Magna Waves Private Limited, Emaar group and Lulu international.
During the Expo, Emaar Group signed an agreement with the Jammu and Kashmir government to develop a 500,000 square feet shopping mall in Srinagar. Emaar is UAE’s biggest real estate developer and the investment is expected to pave the way for further investments. Lulu Group has also pledged ₹600 million to develop a food processing unit in J&K.
Moreover, UAE’s Century- Financial, will also be investing $100m to build three hotels and one commercial-residential complex in the UT. Dubai ports giant DP World is set to build an inland port in J&K and the 250-acre site for the project will be finalised shortly.
Interestingly, these projects will not only give considerable employment opportunities to the local youth, but also benefit the agriculture sector and uplift the economic conditions of farmers.
Under the J&K-Dubai partnership, world famous GI-tagged Kashmiri saffron has been launched at Lulu hypermarket in Dubai.
Sinha encourages consumers to get smart meters
In a major step towards ensuring uninterrupted power supply, areas being installed with smart meters will be made curtailment free along with supply of quality power to the end user, said lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha during an event at the Convention Centre here on Monday.
“From today, 6,603 smart meter households connected to four feeders of Jammu will receive quality electricity. I appeal to the people to install smart meters and help the administration in controlling theft and reducing wasteful consumption,” said the LG.
The move will enable consumers to monitor their power consumption behaviour and regulate it accordingly. The pre-paid feature, to be enabled in the coming days, will provide desired flexibility in the consumption of electricity to the consumers, said Sinha. Similar arrangements are being made in Kashmir as well, he added.
For the last seven decades, no credible efforts were made to increase neither the power capacity and nor was the transmission and distribution capacity was strengthened, he said.
The present government, for the last one and half year, is making sustained efforts to ensure reliable power supply to consumers, besides reducing transmission losses and improving distribution efficiency, he further added.
Sinha meets Ukraine-returnee students
Sinha also met MBBS students of J&K , at Raj Bhavan, who have returned from the war-torn Ukraine. The group of students, accompanied by Arvind Gupta, secretary of Jammu & Kashmir BJP, expressed gratitude towards the efforts of the government to facilitate their safe return.
Through a memorandum, they also expressed their gratitude towards PM Narendra Modi for the successful “Operation Ganga”, which led to safe return of Indian students, who were struck in Ukraine.
During the meeting, the MBBS students studying also shared their worries about future studies due to the prevailing situation in Ukraine. They requested the LG to help them continue their studies in India.
Sinha said that a policy is being formulated to enable them to complete their education in India.
The students who met the LG included Simon Jeet Singh, Arjun Gandotra, Aryan Dubey, Muskan Mahajan, Isha Sharma, Ridhi Goja, Chandan Singh Rana, Jasleen Kour, Diksha Khanna, and Parv Atri.
