Maharashtra to ease up vehicle plant set-up process

Setting up an auto manufacturing plant or any other industrial unit in Maharashtra is about to get easier, with the state government working towards reducing the number of approvals required for the process.

Subhash Rajaram Desai, Minister of Industries, Government of Maharashtra told sister publication Autocar Professional, that the government was working towards reducing the number of approvals required for setting up a business in the state to 25 from the current requirement of 76.

“Those who want to set up a business have to run from pillar to post and a lot of time is wasted in getting permissions, permits, clearances and NOCs. We were surprised to know that an industry needs 76 permissions in the state in order to be set up. We are reducing permissions from 76 to 25,” he said.

The Industries Minister said that the state was ready to provide support to the auto industry and was ready to tackle the problems they might face. He said the state had recently helped Mercedes-Benz in clearing a pending environment clearance proposal for its facility in Chakan.

Mercedes-Benz recently added a new production line at its Chakan plant in Pune to double its capacity. The annual capacity at the plant now stands at 20,000 units, up from 10,000 units earlier.

The state government is pulling out all stops in order to attract more industries, as other states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka all vie to find footing as the next automotive hub.

Moreover, the government recently found out that some firms who were allocated plots in industrial areas haven’t started utilising the same for a very long time. Desai said that they earmarked 1,200 such plots and gave them back to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), to be reallocated to other industries who intend on setting up businesses sooner.

The proposal to ease the number of approvals required to set up a business is a huge step in the right direction by the Maharashtra government to further encourage entrepreneurs and automakers. It remains to be seen if this move by the state, that already houses manufacturing units of automakers such as Tata Motors, Bajaj, Mahindra, Audi India and Skoda among others, proves to be successful.