Smart City to come up at Indore Special Economic Zone

The Madhya Pradesh government plans to develop a smart city on 300-acre non-processing area of Indore special economic zone.

The Madhya Pradesh government plans to develop a smart city on 300-acre non-processing area of Indore special economic zone (SEZ).

The project will be developed on public-private partnership (PPP) mode, and the government will soon come out with tenders to select a developer.

The state government has already given its nod to the detailed project report (DPR) and applied to the Centre for de-notification of the non-processing area.

The smart city will be a self-sustained township with modern infrastructure and amenities including residential, commercial, schools, clinics and banking facilities, government officials said.

"We have identified 300-acre land out of a total of 276 hectares (681 acres) in the non-processing zone of Indore SEZ for developing a smart city. The feasibility study has been done and the state government has already approved the detailed project report (DPR). We will come out with tenders to select a developer once the Centre de-notifies the land," Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam (AKVN) Indore managing director, Manish Singh said.

The developer, who will be shortlisted through a national open tender, will prepare the master plan of the smart city.

Once the master plan is approved by the departments concerned, work will begin and the developer will get the lease rights for the next 30 years.

The Centre is likely to de-notify the land next month, officials said.

"The state government has applied for de-notification of the non-processing area of Indore SEZ. The matter will come up during the next Board of Approval (BoA) meeting (to be held in New Delhi) tentatively scheduled for May," Indore SEZ development commissioner AK Rathore said.

"The development of non-processing zone of the SEZ has been delayed for many years for one reason or the other. Hopefully, the project will not face any more hurdles," Pithampur Audyogik Sangathan president, Gautam Kothari said.

Indore SEZ, which is located in Pithampur, is spread over an area of 1,113 hectares. At present there are 47 operational units in the zone and five new units are under construction.

Exports from the SEZ crossed Rs 3,919 crores in 2014-15 as against Rs 2,909 crores in last financial year, recording a growth of 35%.