Chhattisgarh to invest Rs 10K crore in new capital city

Mumbai, Feb 11: Chhattisgarh government today said it would be investing Rs 10,000 crore over the next 2-3 years in Naya Raipur, the upcoming new capital city, to turn it into a smart and electronic city. "We have already invested Rs 6,000 crore to create basic infrastructure, including connectivity, power supply....We plan to invest another Rs 10,000 crore to create amenities as well as to develop an electronic city in this smart city," principal secretary, energy and IT Aman Kumar Singh told PTI. He was here to attend a NASSCOM event with the Chief Minister Raman Singh. The state government had shifted focus from creating manufacturing capacities for steel, aluminium and setting up power generation capacities to IT/ITeS as a part of the Central government's mission to create digital India, he said. "We are a power surplus state. We have enough manufacturing capacity for steel and other products. Therefore, we have decided to shift our focus to non-core sectors like the IT/ITES. We have decided to develop an electronic manufacturing cluster on nearly 80 sq km area out of the 287 sq km Naya Raipur," Raman Singh said. Aman Kumar Singh said the state was in talks with companies, both domestic and international, for setting up their businesses in Naya Raipur. "In this electronic city, we are looking at investments in electronic manufacturing products, IT enabled services, BPOs and medical products, among others," Singh added. Infosys, Cisco, TCS, Microsoft and several others had shown interest in setting up their businesses, he added. In October last year, the government received green signal from the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for developing an electronic cluster. The state government had last year inked an agreement with the Chinese company Forstar Industry Limited (FIL) for setting up a manufacturing plant for computer systems and mobile devices. Singh further said the investments would also be used to develop golf course, convention centre, road infrastructure, botanical garden, etc.