Boost for DMIC’s industrial smart cities

Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC), among India's first greenfield industrial smart cities along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), has attracted an investment of Rs 36 billion as on December 31, 2018, from investors. The first phase of the package (Shendra-Bidkin) is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

Infrastructure packages of Rs 79.47 billion have been approved by the Government of India to help AURIC offer high-value, sustainable infrastructure that will support long-term economic vitality, high quality of life, and a knowledge-based ecosystem with breakthrough innovation and efficiency.

Hyosung Corporation of South Korea, the largest global spandex producer, is committed to invest around Rs 30 billion for 100 acre of land in AURIC. Several global companies from the US, Europe, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea have also been considering investments in AURIC, such as Russia’s Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), Guangdong Baihe Medical Technology of China, and Fuji Silvertech, Japan’s leading precast concrete manufacturing company. Companies closer around AURIC include Skoda, Siemens, Bajaj, Johnson & Johnson, Crompton & Greaves, Perkins, Liebherr, Lupin, Endress + Hauser, Wockhardt & Endurance, among others.

Planned across an area of 10,000 acre in Maharashtra, AURIC has allotted 50 plots comprising 507,164 sq m, thereby creating 2,000 direct employment opportunities. Gajanan Patil, Joint Managing Director, Aurangabad Industrial Township (AITL), says, “The first phase of AURIC will be completed by 2019. AURIC is expected to make Aurangabad a major manufacturing hub, which is likely to create about 300,000 new jobs and, thus, attract skilled labour. An environment-friendly city is being planned with the help of modern information and communication technologies (ICT). AURIC will make Maharashtra the most preferred investment destination in India.”

The new integrated industrial township is expected to be a congregation of office spaces, residences, hotels, large and small format retail, hospitals, schools, parks, entertainment hubs, and more. Sixty per cent of the total land has been utilised for industrial purposes, while 40 per cent is for residential, commercial, institutions, open spaces and social-cultural amenities. State-of-the-art technology will be employed to implement this vision. The infrastructure will focus on clean, reusable and recycling methodologies along with smart governance features.