Srinagar: Kashmir was often dubbed as the heaven on earth; but things took a different turn for a few years in between. With the abrogation of Article 370, things have become brighter and the union territory Jammu and Kashmir has started attracting incredible number of investments, from both domestic and international companies.
The infrastructure projects in the union territory (UT) got a major shot in the arm as a result of which lots of international companies started investing over there.
Investors like Lulu Group, EMAAR, Jindal Group, Apollo, Al Maya Group, Century Financial have come forth to invest in the union territory.
A total of 890 Central laws were implemented, 250 vague erstwhile state laws removed and 130 erstwhile state laws were modified.
Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, thousands of kilometres of roads are getting constructed, more than 25 National Highway projects with hundreds of bridges, tunnels are under construction right now.
Jammu and Kashmir is now proud a Union Territory of two AIIMS, two State Cancer Institutes, Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management, seven new Government Medical Colleges, 15 nursing colleges, reported Daily Excelsior. This has given a big push to the health and education infrastructure in the Union Territory.
Major push to power infrastructure is given with transmission capacity augmentation on a war-footing. A total of 21 hydro-electric projects with installed capacity of around 5,200 MW are under construction.
While projects for beautification of Srinagar like laser shows, musical fountains, floating theatre are already done, Jammu is expediting work on Tawi River Front, Artificial Lake, Heritage City, Zoo, Lord Balaji Temple replica and many more projects.
On tourism front, highest ever tourist footfall in Jammu and Kashmir is getting recorded. Several tourist-related projects of ropeways, lakes development, smart cities of Jammu and Srinagar are being developed at a fast pace.
E-rickshaws, e-autos and e-buses are operating for securing carbon-neutral environment. Digitisation of revenue records, introduction of single window web services, 100 per cent Aadhaar seeding, e-Shram cards are major initiatives taken under e-Governance.
The UT is enriched with the world famous and the traditional handicraft industry, that has emerged as a large industry in last few years. Due to large employment base as well as export potential, the industry has been receiving priority attention of the government. The Union Territory is also famous for its small-scale and cottage industries such as silks, shawls, basketry, carpet weaving, pottery, copper and silverware, walnut wood and papier-Mache.
The rare cottage handicrafts industry provides direct and gainful employment to around 340,000 artisans in total.
Total export from Jammu and Kashmir stood at USD 188.18 million in the year 2019-20. In FY21, exports from J&K stood at USD 159.64 million. Jammu and Kashmir has an industrial policy that offers good incentives along with a single-window clearance mechanism. Land is allotted in this policy at concessional rates in industrial areas on lease for 90 years.
As of April 2021, Jammu and Kashmir had a total installed power generation capacity of 3482.11 MW, comprising 1866.08 MW under central utilities, 1535.98 MW (UT utilities) and 80.05 MW, reported Brighter Kashmir.
A cumulative FDI inflow in Jammu and Kashmir was valued at USD 0.21 million between October 2019 and March 2021, according to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) is making five tunnels in the UT at a cost of USD 3.42 million.
The tunnels will have all weather access and will be completed by 2024, which will provide easy access to higher regions of Kashmir. In 2019-20, the total production of vegetables and fruits in Jammu and Kashmir was estimated at 1337.12 thousand metric tonnes and 2541.16 thousand metric tonnes, respectively.
Between 2019-20, total production of horticulture crops was expected to be 3,912.91 thousand metric tonnes and area under production was 400.25 thousand hectares.
–IANS