Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has geared its efforts to build an industry ecosystem where both small and large companies can thrive together. It has concentrated mainly on chemical and engineering sectors and is developing special zones for them.

GIDC has reserved 1,000 hectares of land from its 4,000-hectare Dahej Special Economic Zone industrial estate. This reservation is for SMEs in chemical and engineering industries. SMEs in chemical zone will be given 350-400 hectares and in engineering units will be allotted 600-650 hectares. The idea is to make the zone self-sufficient whereby the wastes of smaller units become raw materials for larger companies and vise versa. Hence, the production of products and by-products can become a continuous process.

Arvind Agrawal, GIDC managing director, says “GIDC will give preference to those SMEs from chemical and engineering sectors which have forward and backward linkages with large enterprises already present in the estate in Dahej. The idea is to create an environment where hardly anything gets wasted, and everything gets utilised within the industrial fraternity at Dahej.”

Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation (GSFC), Gujarat Alkalis and Chemicals Limited (GACL), and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertiliser Corporation (GNFC) have been asked to work in tandem with GIDC. The idea is to promote the establishment of SMEs nearby plants of these three companies. This will help both small and large companies to reap the benefits of using each other’s by-products and raw materials for making their own products.