J&K opens up for investments

The Jammu and Kashmir administration is taking major steps to open up the healthcare and services sector in J&K for investments.

Speaking to IANS here, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industry Ranjan Prakash Thakur said that the services sector, production sector and agri business were the major highlights of the investment proposal.

   

The prime focus for J&K is on healthcare as this will also generate employment and provide healthcare to the people of the state, said Thakur.

“We still lack basic health facilities in Kashmir as well as Jammu division. A lot of people travel to cities like Delhi and Mumbai for treatment,” he said.

Thakur said that the requirement in J&K was a hospital chain as patients had to travel away from J&K to other cities.

“Though AIIMS is coming up, we don’t have enough doctors and hospitals in Kashmir. It is an immediate need and a huge demand there. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Aushadhi Yojana has been extended to the entire population in Kashmir, which means 1.3 crore people have been covered,” he said.

Thakur said that there were many doctors from Kashmir working worldwide who wanted to return to their roots.

The second focus would be on setting up amusement parks in J&K.

He said J&K was a “travellers’ paradise” and a lot of people travel to J&K.

“We will like to develop the best amusement parks that India can offer in here,” Thakur said.

He said that in the agro service area, saffron, apples and cherries were the major exports apart from other fruits on which proper attention would be paid for better growth.

Thakur said there was no law and order problem in J&K and it was at par with Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

“The J&K government is offering land for lease for 99 years and on reasonable rates. J&K has a single window clearance for all the projects and also there is cheap power and water, which is a major component for setting up of industry,” he said. “The government is offering package incentives which are production linked. I can say with certainty that the packages being offered here, which the prime minister has spoken about, are the best that any state has ever given in the country.”

He said that the government in ways to attract investment had assured that if anybody invests hundred crores of rupees in plant and machinery, they would get three-times the GST refund.

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