Maharashtra has two of the seven investment regions selected under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor for setting up the National Industrial Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs) under the new national manufacturing policy.

NIMZ is conceptualised as integrated industrial townships with all important elements necessary to help the growth of manufacturing like infrastructure, clean and energy efficient technology, simplified business regulations and the necessary social and institutional infrastructure.

Indore will get a boost from one such NIMZ to come up in Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow region in Madhya Pradesh spread over 370 square kilometres.

One such NIMZ was also identified in each of the four other states of  Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia disclosed in reply to a question in the Rajya Sbha on Wednesday.

The sites for the NIMZs proposed in Maharashtra are 84-sq km Shendra-Bidkin industrial park city near Aurangabad and 230-sq km Dighi Port industrial area. One in Gujarat is proposed in Ahmedabad-Dholera region in an area of 900 sq km.

Other NIMZs are proposed on Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana region in Rajasthan on 150 sq km, and Manesar-Bawal region in Haryana.

In reply to another question by Vijay Darda, the minister clarified that the location of the NIMZ has been left for the state governments to decide. Darda wanted to know if one such NIMZ will be set up in his Yavatmal district to help in diversion of vocations, so that farmers entirely dependent on the rain-fed agriculture are benefitted, thereby ending the continuous menace of farmers' suicide.