| A
boom town in Maharashtra |
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Ranjangaon,
with a population of 230,000 is a harsh, drought-prone
area in the rain shadow region of the Sahayadri
Mountain range, 65 km from Pune city in Maharashtra.
Yet it has emerged as the favourite destination
for multinational manufacturing companies and
a premier industrial centre in Maharashtra with
the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) for
greenfield projects in the country- a staggering
US $ 1450 m in the last three years (that includes
money raised in GDRs).
It
has attracted a range of industries from auto
manufacturer Fiat to white good giants like Whirlpool,
Matsushita and LG. LG Electronics is building
a state-of-the-art plant (its second in India)
on a site that sprawls over 50 acres to manufacture
colour televisions and refrigerators. Also, in
the coming months, almost a dozen LG vendors will
set up shop nearby. Even Swarovski has its Indian
pearl coating factory in Ranjangaon, while last
year alone, companies like Dow Corning and Michelin
and engineering company Baekert were allotted
land here. Two years ago, Pepsi’s Frito
Lay opened shop here. Now there’s talk of
Samsung along with giants like the Nusli Wadia
group flagship, and the US $ 207 m Bombay Dyeing,
moving to Ranjangaon.
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Officials
reckon that Ranjangaon offers a combination
of factors which most other locations cannot
match. It is the foreign type infrastructure
(wide leveled roads, a water effluent plant
and communication facilities) that draw companies
to Ranjangaon.
A
big plus is Ranjangaon’s proximity to
Pune which is a 90-minute drive away. With
sales tax incentives long gone, getting investments
in the hinterland are not all that easy. So
even as land may be cheaper in other places,
the easy reach of both Mumbai and Pune adds
to Ranjangaon’s attractiveness. To add
to the lure, the land prices are really cheaper
in comparison to the competition- the going
rate is Rs 450 (US $ 10) per square metre,
even as places like Talegaon still command
Rs 600 (US $ 13).
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Our Say |
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| Maharashtra
seems to have gotten its act together
in an effort to outrun its competition
by developing more industry friendly
locales beyond just Mumbai and
Pune. In fact the bureaucrats
have even greater ambitions. For
instance they want Ranjangaon
to be a hub for auto companies
as well and are actively wooing
the world’s top manufacturers.
Czech auto maker Skoda did, in
fact, study the possibility of
setting up shop in Ranjangaon
before finally settling on Aurangabad.
Others like Volkswagen and Hyundai
have also made inquiries in the
recent past.
But
that’s not all for the moment.
Ranjangaon, like the rest of the
state is making the most of the
prevalent ‘Maharashtra feel
good factor’ given the fact
that just good old Mumbai and
its suburbs alone topped the list
at US $ 4600 m for a whopping
1,886 approvals. |
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MIDC
has carved out 704 industrial plots in the district’s
industrial park and so far 266 plots over 390 hectares
have been allotted. Of this, 35 units have gone
into production, 17 are under construction and many
others should be in action in the near future.
Officials
say that Ranjangaon may soon be one of the top locations
in the country for the manufacture of white goods. |
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| Imported
oil equipment could get a customs duty waiver
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Foreign and private firms which
had production sharing contracts with the government
are pressurizing the latter to grant duty sops,
with retrospective effect, on equipment imported
for oil exploration.
The
production sharing contracts came into force in
’94, after three rounds of bidding failed
to evoke a favourable response from private and
foreign companies. Four fields were given for commercial
exploitation to private players. Incentives including
customs duty exemption on import of equipment for
oil exploration were announced to bolster investments.
In
’94, the duty waiver was given only to two
categories of players in the consortium.
First, where the production sharing contract was
between the government, national oil company and
a domestic company. Second, where the contract was
between the government, national oil company and
a foreign company. The third category — where
the production sharing contract was between the
government, national oil company, a private sector
domestic company and a foreign company — did
not qualify for customs waiver. The latter are now
lobbying to get the benefit that their other counterparts
were given, in order to retain their competitiveness.
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