KTR seeks Centre's budgetary push for industrial devpt in TS

Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday urged the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman to provide budgetary support for development of industrial corridors in Telangana, inclusion of Hyderabad in the defence corridor and financial support to Pharma city in the next Union Budget.

KTR wrote letters to the Union Finance Minister with regard to various demands. The minister wanted the Centre to have a National Design Centre in Hyderabad as requested to her earlier. He wanted the Centre to allocate funds for the Design Centre which would be set up in the National Academy of Construction. The State government is ready to bear the 25 per cent cost of the project, he added. The minister wanted the Centre to provide funds for industrial corridors of Hyderabad-Warangal, Hyderabad-Nagpur.

He wanted funds for development of Pharma City, National Industrial Manufacturing Zone-Zaheerabad nodes under this corridor. He wanted the government to include Mancherial node in the Hyderabad-Nagpur corridor and release Rs 6,000 crore including Rs 2,000 crore for each node. Rama Rao wanted the Union Minister to include Hyderabad in the Defence Industrial Production corridor. Stating that Hyderabad was strategically located in the centre of the country and home to several public sector defence enterprises and DRDO labs.

The State identified aerospace and defence as a priority industry in the industrial policy and has two operational Aerospace Manufacturing Parks near Adibatla region. Besides an aerospace park operated by GMR adjoining the international airport, the State was planning to set up a larger aerospace and Defence Park in Eliminedu and create another aerospace cluster within the National Investments and manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) planned at Medak district. The State is also planning to set up a Defence incubator in Hyderabad with support from the Central Government. He listed out the benefits of having Hyderabad in the proposed corridor.

Informing about the world's biggest pharmaceutical cluster in Hyderabad as per the Make in India initiative of Centre, the minister requested the Union Finance Minister to consider extending financial support to the project.