RIL to set up Rs 60,000 Cr India's first digital industrial area in Maharashtra

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani along with its global partners will invest Rs 60,000 crore to set up India's first integrated digital area in Maharashtra.

Speaking on the opening day of the Magnetic Maharashtra investor summit, Mukesh Ambani said that the company, along with other global partners, will invest the amount in the next 10 years in Maharashtra. It will be the first integrated digital industrial area in the country. However, he did not divulge the details about location and dates to begin the project.

RIL has more than 20 global companies, including Cisco, Siemens, HP, Dell, Nokia and Nvidia, which have already agreed to invest, he added.

Comparing with Chinese manufacturing revolution, Ambani said India can achieve much more and quickly in the service sector, which will be the fourth industrial revolution.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra government too has been supportive of the initiative and relaxed its norms for Integrated Industrial Areas (IIAs).

As per the decision, a mandatory condition of having 40 hectares of land for setting up an IIA has been relaxed to 20 hectares. Now more land will be available to industries, the land utilisation ratio of industries to residential areas has been revised from 60:40 to 80:20, reported India.com.

The state government hopes to sign a record 4,500 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and investment intentions worth Rs 10 lakh crore.

Earlier in January, Ambani had announced Rs 5,000 crore investment in West Bengal to start manufacturing mobile phones and set-top boxes. RIL has invested around Rs 15,000 crore in the state during the past three years.

RIL's RJio is also planning to go public by next year-end. So far, the company has invested $31 billion in its telecom venture, which was launched in September 2016. The company’s subscribers base stands at 160.1 million users.

Ambani had in his earlier speech emphasised that RIL will invest over Rs 250,000 crore across the Digital India pillars. He eyes to set up an infrastructure for all — IP next — generation and wireless broadband infrastructure across all the 29 states in India.