Phase I of Del-Mum Industrial Corridor to be done 2019: CMD

Kumar admitted that land acquisition would turn out to be a major challenge for state governments as the project progressed.

"The land acquisition has been a challenging task for state government especially since the acquisition of the new Land Acquisition Act. We have to solve this problem if industrial cities have to come up," Kumar said.

Below is the transcript of the interview on CNBC-TV18.

Latha: India Inc and the investor community is very much wanting to know what is happening on the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) front, the mega project for the country in terms of kicking up investment. First give us an update, the DMIC is tying in very nicely with the new government’s vision to build 100 small cities rather than mega cities. So, what is the progress in giving out of tenders?

The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, in this full corridor, we are proceeding ahead with five industrial smart cities. Two of them are part of the eight industrial cities that are planned along the DMIC. These are the big cities ranging from 84 square kilometres to 920 square kilometres. In two of these we are going ahead.

The two of these are Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat and the second is the Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park in Maharashtra. The other three are smaller cities but they are also smart cities and they are part of the early bird projects taken in the DMIC area.

The other three are the integrated industrial township in Greater Noida and then we have the integrated industrial township in Vikram Udyogpuri near Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Then we have the Global City in Gurgaon in Haryana. We are moving ahead with all these five industrial smart cities. Sonia: Have you completed the process of land acquisition for most of these cities?

In all these five cities, we have land available with us. The state government has been very proactive in making land available to us and that is the reason why we are able to move ahead in these five cities.

Latha: What we heard was that in Maharashtra, the city you mentioned, there has been a bit of resistance from farmers especially in Raigad district where you want to construct the Dighi Port. Is there any problem over there or you are comfortable on land?

The land acquisition has been a challenging task for state government especially since the acquisition of the new Land Acquisition Act. It will make land acquisition more difficult as we go along. We have to solve this problem if industrial cities have to come up.

I have been informed that in Dighi industrial city which has been planned as the second industrial node in Maharashtra, the process of land acquisition is on. So, we have not been informed to any other effect. I have been informed that the land acquisition process is on and as and when land is made available we will take subsequent steps.

Latha: We just had that very successful prime ministerial visit to Japan. Can you give us an update on whether more money was committed by the Japanese partner? In any case we heard that they were going to give you USD 4.5 billion for this project?

That commitment from Japan of USD 4.5 billion was already made earlier. It is part of the funding that they will do through Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) combined; that is what the commitment was. In the recent visit also, it has not been a DMIC specific kind of a commitment but it is an overall commitment of about USD 35 billion in the next five years through public and private sector projects.

Latha: Did that involve scaling up something that has come in for DMIC you think?

The DMIC commitment has not been spelt out as such but the progress on DMIC in partnership with government of Japan is proceeding smoothly; there is no problem on that.