Maharashtra’s leading Investment district

Shashikant Hegde

Pune, generally referred as the cultural capital of Maharashtra has also emerged as one of the prominent investment destinations among the 35 districts the state. Pune, which occupies 5 per cent of the state’s area and 7.5 per cent of its population, accounted for around 13 per cent of the total projects investment planned in the state as of July 2009.

With 870 projects entailing a total investment of Rs.67,110 crore (excluding multi-district projects like roadways, irrigation and power distribution projects) the district was the leading district in terms of total investment planned in Maharashtra.

Project Investment in Pune
Sectors	Projects	Rs Crore	Share (%)
Manufacturing	84	15,119	23.89
Electricity	15	503	0.74
Services & Utilities	762	51,416	75.27
Irrigation	9	72	0.11
All Sectors	870	67,110	100.00
Source: ProjectsToday.com

Although Pune is known for manufacturing activities in the food processing, engineering and automobiles sectors, nearly 75 per cent of the total envisaged investment was in the Services & Utilities sector.

Within the Services & Utilities sector, Community Services, Transport Infrastructure and Real Estate sectors accounted for two-third of the total envisaged investment. The two multi-faceted residential cum commercial projects of Sahara and Lavasa together costing Rs.18,000 crore are the two large projects coming up in the district.

In the Transport infrastructure sector, the Rs 7,500 crore International airport project and the Rs 5,000 crore metro rail project are awaiting final clearances. Both the projects are crucial to meet the future infrastructure requirement of the city.

In the IT sector, though Pune could not keep pace with Bangalore and Hyderabad in terms of growth or investment, currently 31 software parks are coming up in and around the city. The recent decision of Infosys to invest Rs 250 crore in the expansion of its software development centre would go a long way in helping Pune to catch up with the other IT centres in India.

The Manufacturing, automobiles and auto ancillaries sectors together account for around 20 per cent of the total investment planned in the district. Pune, which boasts of the presence of auto majors like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Fiat, Kinetic Motor Company, etc. currently has four automobiles projects and 14 auto ancillaries projects are in various stages of implementation.

Published in Projectmonitor issue date: 03 August 2009