Industrial Expo in Haridwar begins

BILLED as one of the largest B2B (business to business) industrial fair ever to take place in Uttarakhand, the 3-day Industrial Expo beginning January 29, at Haridwar, is all set to give vendor development a shot in the arm and give the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) a major uplift. The industrial expo in the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal (SIDCUL) integrated industrial estate, Haridwar, is being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (Northern Region) in partnership with the government of Uttarakhand. The 70 lakh mega event, spread over 3,500 sq m, will have over 130 exhibitors, 90% of whom will be MSMEs and be a major platform for industry-institute interface with the bigwigs including Tata Motors, Hero Honda, BHEL, Delphi-TVS, IRDE, Godrej & Boyce, Siemens, Hindustan Unilever and Schunk Intec India are among the exhibitors. The mega event has been organised at a time when Uttarakhand celebrates a decade of its existence.

The proactive initiative of the state government has in the last 10 years brought in a sizable investment into the state with Haridwar and Udhamsingh Nagar emerging as major industrial hubs. Already, the available data indicates that 990 units with a total investment of 14,580 crore are operating in Haridwar and another 685 units with an investment of 8,682 crore are in operation in Udhamsingh Nagar taking the total investment to 23,262 crore. There are also a large number of small scale units in operation in the state with a sizable investment. Talking to this correspondent CII(NR) regional director Charu Mathur said that with leading industrial houses in the country as well as MNCs having established their industrial ventures in Uttatrakhand, the state assumes importance and it is the first in the country to have industrial estates in the private sector. Moreover, to woo industry in the hilly and remote areas in the state, the Uttarakhand government announced an attractive package of incentives through a Special Integrated Industrial Promotion Policy 2008.