MOHALI/CHANDIGARH: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal today sought private investment in infrastructure, housing and urban development, logistic and warehousing, power and renewable energy sectors while unveiling new Housing and Urban Development Policy-2013, Renewable Energy Policy, offering best incentives in the country.

Inaugurating the first session ‘Propelling Sustainable Infrastructure’ focused on housing infrastructure and renewable energy sectors on the first day of Progressive Punjab Investors Summit here today, the Deputy Chief Minister said that Punjab is the first state in the country that has unveiled holistic infrastructure development model under which a single agency would be responsible for providing all urban civic amenities including water, sewerage, street lightning, solid waste management, sewerage treatment plant and would be collecting user charges from the consumers.

He said that Punjab Government believes in handing over the development of Housing Infrastructure and Urban development totally to the private players and with government acting as facilitator. He said that Punjab was focusing on overall development of 147 cities and there was investment potential of Rs. 2280 crore in water supply and sewerage sectors besides Rs. 732 in 8 clusters ofPunjabfor Solid Waste Management. Mr. Badal saidPunjabwas focusing on providing world class citizen services and was looking for private players for establishment of data center, disaster recovery center, GIS Database and Data digitalization of records of urban properties and there was a potential business of hundreds of crores in this sector.

Unveiling the new Housing and Urban Development Policy 2013, Mr. Badal said this policy has been framed after extensive consultation with stake holders has salient features like common building rules, rationalization of potential zones for CLU, EDC and other charges, incentives for green building, public private partnership in urban development and provides incentives for affordable housing. Mr. Badal said that in the new policy floor area ratio has been upgraded from 1:1:75 to 1:30 and density per gross acre norm has been increased from 175 PPA to 300 PPA for general housing and 400 for EWS houses to provide more housing stock in the market. He said thatPunjabis the torchbearer in having Land Pooling Policy and has already unveiled a new policy for mega and super mega projects.

Showcasing the potential investment opportunities inPunjab, Mr. Badal said that upcoming New Chandigarh in the Greater Mohali Area is all set to give to new impetus to economic growth and development. He said there are number of opportunities in Medicity to be constructed on 424 acres of land, Educity on 1700 acres, IT City on 1688 acres. He said investment opportunities in the proposed financial district and Downtown Mohali and Downtown Ludhiana would put development model ofDubaiin a shade.

Speaking about the investment opportunities in the Renewable Energy Sector, the Deputy Chief Minister said there was great scope of investment in the clean energy sectors of solar and biomass power. He saidPunjabis targeting to operationalise 200 MW solar powers and 1000 MW biomass power in next three years. Earlier Mr. A. Venu Prasad, Secretary Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Anurag Aggarwal, MD PIDB and TRANSCO gave a detailed presentation on urban development, renewable energy policies of the state and answered the queries of investors from all over the country regarding various policies.

The panel discussion that was chaired by Mr. Mohit Gujral, Vice Chairman, DLF, Mr. Pradeep Singh, CEO ISB, Mr. SK Roongta, Chairman Power Business Group Vedanta, Mr. Ravi Khanna CEO Aditya Birla Solar, Mr. Krishna Ram Bhupal, Director GVK Power and was moderated by Mr. Arvind Mahajan, head Infrastructure and Governance Services, KPMG India.