Pune: Maharashtra industries minister Uday Samant on Tuesday dismissed reports of businesses exiting the Chakan industrial area and said he has directed MIDC to survey factories that have either closed or migrated.The six-laning of the Talegaon-Chakan-Shikhrapur highway has also recently received cabinet approval, he said. Govt is planning to allocate Rs100 crore to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) this year for various development works to ease traffic on the highway, he added.“Govt does not maintain data on how many MSMEs in a particular industrial area have shut shop or moved out. We will address infrastructure issues. I will visit Chakan next week and meet the companies facing severe issues,” he told TOI on the sidelines of an event in Pune.Taking cognisance of the complaints of poor infrastructure in Chakan MIDC, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the urban development and industries department has been given targets to convert MIDCs around Pune into industrial townships to boost and maintain infrastructure and money will be raised and utilised for this.The matter surfaced after 20 enterprises revealed expansion plans to Satara district and threatened to move out of Chakan, citing a lack of land and poor infrastructure.MIDC officials said only three of the 20 units are located in its jurisdiction, while the remaining are operating outside its purview. “We held a meeting with industry representatives of Chakan and Talegaon. We’d also invited owners of the 20 MSMEs to discuss and find solutions to the issues they are facing. However, they did not come to the meeting,” Nilesh Modhave, superintendent engineer, MIDC said.Acknowledging that the concerns raised regarding Chakan MIDC as genuine, Fadnavis assured that the upgradation of the existing infrastructure will be taken up soon after monsoon ends. “Govt has already held one meeting in this regard and has taken the grievances quite seriously and we will resolve all the problems,” he said while interacting with the media in Pune.Most of these factories are located between HP Chowk and Ambethan Chowk. Over the years, hundreds of MSME units have set up operations on nearly 7,200 acres outside MIDC jurisdiction, drawn by proximity to large companies in areas such as Malaunge, Khalumbre, Vasuli and Nighoje, adjoining the MIDC belt.MIDC regional officer Nitin Gawali said none of the companies operating in the area have submitted surrender or transfer applications to exit the existing unit. These MSMEs, in Mar, applied in Khandala MIDC in Satara district for setting up a manufacturing cluster. In the past three years, MIDC has allocated close to 1,000 acres of land to around 500 companies, he added.(With inputs from Anurag Bende)
