Industrial land ready in Maharashtra for business operations: Subash Desai

The Maharashtra government has kept ready 40,000 acres of industrial land along with all amenities, including road connectivity, for companies to come in and start their business operations, State Industries Minister Subash Desai said on Tuesday.

He made the statement while addressing the members of the industry via a Facebook live. The minister said that the State government was already in contact with potential investors from the US, Germany Japan and Taiwan for setting up the units in a plug-and-play mode.

Since migrant workers have moved out of the State, manpower for such units would be made available through the Industrial Employment Bureau (IEB) which is a portal created for recruiting unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers from the local sons of the soil. The process is also on for up-skilling unskilled workers to semi-skilled workers, he said.

Supply-chain disruption

Desai said that the industry across the State is facing problems, and it is a reality which cannot be ignored. Even if the lockdown is opened in other parts of the State, and Mumbai-Pune remains closed, it will not help the industrial units, as the supply chain is spread across the Sstate. Until the lockdown is opened across the country, industrial units can’t fully function, he said.

The President of SME Chamber of India, Chandrakant Salunkhe, said that some MSME units have been levied electricity charges while units have been closed. This is unfair, and electricity companies must take a note of it. Just as the credit flow to the agricultural sector is periodically reviewed by the State government along with banks and RBI officials, a similar exercise must be carried out for the SME and MSME sector, he added.