Growth Centres are large villages or small towns which have the potential to become the nuclei for the socio-economic development of the surrounding area. The Centres can be identified by the different orders with respect to the quality and quantity of services and facilities, service area and population. A growth centre of lowest order should have services like agricultural input centre, primary and middle school, maternity and child care centres and daily market. At highest level, it must have manufacturing industries, hospitals, colleges etc.
The pace of development of backward areas is a cause for concern. With the doing away of the system of licensing of industries and coming into play of market forces, the industries tend to gravitate towards already developed areas which provide better infrastructure, easier availability of skilled work force and forward and backward linkages in terms of availability of raw-materials and markets for products. Thus, the regional imbalances in industrial development may tend to increase. So it is imperative to take special measures to promote development of industries in backward areas.
For tackling the problem of regional imbalances in industrial development, to some extent at least, the Growth Centres Schemes was initiated in the Eighth Plan.
Under the Growth Centres Schemes, the Central Govt. has approved the Industrial Growth Centre Project at Lamlai-Napet at a project cost of Rs.30.00 crores of which Rs.15.00 crores will be the Govt. of India contribution, Rs.5.00 crores as State Govt. contribution, Rs.4.00 crores as loan and equity contribution from the financial institutions and Rs.6.00 crores as loans and equity from other sources. A sum of Rs.1.50 crores was sanctioned and released by the Government of India. A proposal for shifting the site of the Centre is under examination.
Food Processing Industries (FPI):
Food Processing Industries took a vital role in the development of industries and generation of large employment in the state. During 2015-16, 4(four) week extensive training program to 130 entrepreneur were imparted on food processing and a sum of Rs. 140 lakhs was provided for implementation of National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) under which financial provision were released to 119 beneficiaries.
Food Park:
The Foundation Stone for a Food Park was laid down on 10.11.2006 at Nilakuthi in an area of about 31 acres of land with a project cost of Rs. 1361.45 lakhs. During 2006-07, the State and Central Government have released a sum of Rs. 272 lakhs and Rs. 160 lakhs respectively. NABARD has agreed to extend a term loan of Rs. 620 lakhs for the project. The project cost was revised to Rs. 3172.40 lakhs and NABARD has also agreed to rise its term loan to Rs. 1574.16 lakhs. The approved provision of fund for the year 2009-10 was Rs. 1196.00 lakhs.
The implementing agency of the Food Park Project is the Manipur Food Industries Corporation Ltd. The State Government is planning to upgrade the proposed Food Park into Mega Food Park. There will be 40-50 Food Processing Units for which common facilities like Cold storage, warehousing, Quality Control Lab., Weight Bridge, Post Office, Bank, Water & Power supply will be made available in the Food Park. For the convenience of the food processing units, construction of a bridge connecting the Park at Nilakuthi and NH-39 over Imphal River has also started.
Bamboo Processing Industries:
Considering the fact that Manipur share about 25% of the total growing stock of bamboo of the North Eastern Region of India and 14% of the country, Manipur State stands to prominently benefit from the national programme for bamboo development. The bamboo growing area within and around Jiribam, covering the bamboo abundant area of Tamenglong district and Tipaimukh area of Churachandpur district is about 2969 sq. km., which is about 80% of the total bamboo growing area in Manipur.
Therefore, preparation have been made to set up a Bamboo Technology Park at Jiribam. The main object of setting up the park is to promote various bamboo based industries. The processing units will be set up on Public Private Partnership under Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) model in association with the National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA), Government of India.
In order to facilitate the Bamboo Based Industry (BBI), for efficient utilization of bamboo resources, the following training program were sponsored.
a) Bamboo Cap
b) Dyeing & Screen Printing of Round Bamboo, Bamboo Strips and Bamboo leaves.
c) Transportation charges to be provided to the artisan participating in the International Bamboo Festivals.