New Delhi, October 6: Union Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily urged Karnataka Chief Minister D Sadananda Gowda to adopt a holstic approach to the Mangalore Special Economic Zone Limited of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, a joint undertaking of Union and State governments.
In a letter to Mr Gowda, Mr Moily said he had held a review of MSEZL recently and found that relief and resettlement package had been worked out and was unique in nature. The project had been conceived in two phases and had made tremendous progress.
The phase-I and II project had proposed to have petro-chemical complex, silk and synthetic yarn based apparels, engineering industry, food processing, drugs and pharmaceuticals, IT/ITES-software park, multi services research and development, gems and jewellery and miscellaneous industries involving an investment of around Rs 46,500 crore creating direct employment to about 200,000 youths and many more indirect employment opportunities in the region and the state.
He said Mangalore had locational infrastructural advantage like airport, full-fledged harbour and four national highways criss crossing Mangalore district.
"If the cost is diluted, it will be disservice to Karnataka and the youths of the coastal region. I request you to take a look by adopting a holistic approach," he added.
Mr Moily said it would be most appropriate if the Chief Minister could organise a meeting of representatives and authorities of MSEZL and the main players of Mangalore SEZ and the district authorities to deliberate the issue.
He also offered to take part in the meeting and said over 80 per cent of the land owners had given their consent to the SEZ and the protests were coming from environmentalist groups who opposed development of the region and they formed miniscule percentage of the population
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