Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is fast turning into an investment hub as people are keen to establish their business units in the UT, J&K Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta said on Monday.

Mehta made the remarks during a meeting called to deliberate upon the deliverables set for the Industries & Commerce (I&C) Department for the year 2023-24.

It was mentioned in the meeting that under New Industrial Policy (NIP) 2021, a total of 5,327 investment proposals have been received so far with an anticipated investment of about Rs 66,000 crore to be made here in the UT.

The meeting was further apprised that under NIP investments worth about Rs 2,200 crore have been made in J&K till previous financial year 2022-23. These units have come into production recently creating employment opportunities for nearly 10,000 youth.

Moreover, it was revealed that the current financial year 2023-24 is turning out to be a successful year in terms of investments actually made on ground.

It was elucidated that till date the work started on industrial units has reached to nearly Rs 5500 crore, an official statement said.

These units shall provide jobs to many more youth in the months to come.

The department has allotted land in respect of 1,854 units out of which 854 have paid the premium.

In addition, 560 units have signed lease deeds and have taken over the possession of the land allotted for starting work on their units as mandated under NIP. (IANS/NS)