by Umaima Reshi
SRINAGAR: A 50-acre industrial park proposed at Nowgam in Srinagar is set to be developed as a fully integrated plug-and-play industrial hub at an estimated cost of Rs 104.02 crore. The project is designed primarily to cater to Kashmir’s horticulture value chain, food processing, light manufacturing, logistics, warehousing and digital services.
The proposed park, being taken up under the Centre’s Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojana (BHAVYA), is envisaged as a departure from conventional industrial estates, where investors are required to develop much of the supporting infrastructure themselves. The Nowgam project proposes to provide serviced industrial plots, roads, power, water, effluent treatment, warehouses and cold storage, built-to-suit factory facilities, digital infrastructure and worker-oriented amenities before industrial units are established.
An official source said the 50-acre (400-kanal) site would require an investment of Rs 66.63 crore for core infrastructure, Rs 18.96 crore for value-added infrastructure, Rs 6.69 crore for social infrastructure, Rs 4.04 crore for external infrastructure and Rs 7.71 crore towards soft costs, including contingencies, escalation, supervision, administration, quality control and safety.
The location, officials said, gives the proposed park a significant connectivity advantage. The site is slightly more than 600 metres from National Highway-44, less than 2 km from Nowgam Railway Station and approximately 10 km from Srinagar International Airport. The Jhelum is about four kilometres away, while the nearest drainage outlet, Padshahi Bagh Nallah, is around 250 metres from the site.
The site, however, presents a substantial engineering challenge. Sources said the area is predominantly marshy and lies roughly three metres, or about 10 feet, below the level of the main approach road. A substantial amount of earth filling and ground stabilisation will have to be undertaken before the site can support industrial buildings, roads and heavy vehicle movement. The work is expected to cost Rs 14.52 crore.
The park is planned with 39 parcels covering industrial, logistics, IT, commercial, residential, public and utility functions. The industrial component accounts for 30.5 acres of the 50-acre site. The proposed industrial plot mix includes 17 plots ranging between one and five acres and another 11 MSME or micro plots of up to one acre. The layout also provides 3.55 acres for logistics facilities and 1.15 acres for an IT tower.
The park would have controlled-atmosphere and cold storage facilities, apple grading and packing, fruit juice and pulp production, and processing of jams, jellies and preserves. If it eventually comes up, it would be the third major horticulture-based industrial base in Kashmir after Lassipora in Pulwama and Shopian.
A portion of the park would be set aside for wood-based and joinery units, packaging and corrugated-box manufacturers, repair and allied MSME services, logistics and warehousing operations, weighbridge and handling facilities, and IT and IT-enabled services.
Officials said the project has an elaborate water-distribution system for supply, along with a parallel system for managing storm-water. It will have a water supply capacity of 0.15 million gallons per day. Besides, it will have a 0.5 million-litre-per-day Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP).
The project has adopted a storm-water design discharge of between 4.6 and 5.0 cubic metres per second and a design rainfall intensity of 90 mm per hour. It estimates the annual harvestable rainwater potential at 109,265 cubic metres. All the discharge will go to Padshahi Bagh Nallah.
The project will also have a worker-housing component with a total built-up area of around 1,200 square metres to accommodate 120 workers.
Under the BHAVYA scheme, the project would receive central assistance of up to Rs 1 crore per acre. The remaining Rs 54 crore would have to be borne by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), including expenditure on components that fall outside the central funding cap or are otherwise ineligible.
Officials said this would help the government manage a part of the 5,000 existing applications submitted by entrepreneurs in Kashmir for allotment of land.
