(PTI)
Union Shipping and Ports Minister Nitin Gadkari today said 24 companies have offered to invest over Rs 60,000 crore in a special economic zone adjoining the country’s largest container port JNPT. “Twenty-four companies have already offered to come (and) set up (ventures) in JNPT SEZ who will use it for exports,” Gadkari said, speaking at a seminar organised by Moneycontrol and Free Press Journal here this morning. This will entail an investment of Rs 60,000 crore and create employment for 1.25-1.50 lakh people, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation for the facility months after being sworn-in in May 2014 and the government was targeting to create 1.50 lakh jobs in the facility. Without disclosing the name of the company, Gadkari today said one of the companies has said it “on an affidavit” that it alone will invest Rs 6,000 crore and create employment for 40,000 people. The comments from the minister came in the backdrop of recent media reports that said Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn may be one of the interested companies, which will create the high number of jobs for mobile handset manufacturing at the facility.
