Sanand set to house China’s textile park

A total of 22 MoUs were signed between the Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTb) and various companies in China and Hong Kong, across sectors of renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure development, affordable housing, smart cities, textiles, industrial parks, pharmaceuticals, automotive, electrical engineering and logistics. One of the major MoUs that was signed during this visit was for setting up of two industrial parks worth Rs 10,000 crore in the state.

“One will be a textile park at Sanand (near Ahmedabad) and the second will be a general park,” said Agarwal.

These two parks will be in addition to the industrial park focused on engineering sector that the Chinese are setting up at Karjan, near Vadodara. “About 50 per cent of land for this purpose has been bought by the Chinese near the TBEA plant at Karjan,” the official said, adding that there was no duplication of MoUs signed during the just-concluded Chinese tour and those inked during the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Ahmedabad in 2014.

In order to take some of these MoUs forward, a senior advisor to the provincial government of Guangdong, Lin Musheng will be visiting Gujarat with a business delegation in July 2015, followed by the visit of the Governor of Guangdong, Zhu Xiaodan, in September, officials added. Agarwal also stated that the Chinese were also keen to create furniture parks at centres like Kandla Port and Ahmedabad.

Apart from these, China Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Ltd (CSMEI) will be cooperating and supporting Gujarat in the development of a new smart city worth Rs 19,000 crore. This will be the third smart city envisaged in the state after GIFT City and Dholera SIR. The Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner D Thara said that the China National Building Material Group Corporation will be soon launching a pilot project for low-cost housing.

“They are yet to decide on the material and stability of the structure,” she remarked. The visit of the delegation to the Haihe Education Park at Tianjin is expected to lead to a specific programme of cooperation with Directorate of Employment and Training in the near future for upgrading the ITIs and polytechnics in the state.