Govt Outlines Ministers’ Panel To Clear Auto Mission Plan

NEW DELHI: The government will soon constitute an inter-ministerial group for smoother implementation of the national auto policy and the automotive mission plan (2006-2016).

The auto mission plan envisages India becoming an international hub for manufacturing small, affordable passenger cars and a key centre for manufacturing tractors and two-wheelers in the next 10 years.

The group will include representatives from the ministries of heavy industries, road and surface transport, finance, commerce, human resource development (HRD) and science and technology.

A senior official in the department of heavy industries told ET that the objective was to ensure that there were no differences among the ministries on the implementation of different schemes under the policy. That is why even the finance and commerce ministries have been asked to be part of the panel, the official added.

“A note in this regard has been circulated to all ministries concerned and the group would be set up within two weeks,” he said.

There a number of areas, especially related to funding, where the ministries may not see eye to eye. While the ministry of heavy industries keeps pushing for various sops for promotion of private passenger vehicles, the ministry of road and surface transport holds a contrary view.

Since the finance ministry controls the purse strings, it needs to be totally convinced about a project before it agrees to allocate money. “The group will help ministries sort out their differences,” the official said.

The panel will also help speed up the government’s plans to set up an auto institute in every district of the country on public-private partnership basis, besides giving a fillip to the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP).

The government announced the automotive mission plan last year, under which it proposed to make the Indian auto industry a $145-billion industry contributing about 10% of the nation’s GDP by 2016.

A target of providing 25 million jobs in the sector in the ten-year period has also been set. As per plans, the industry should aim at harmonising the standards of the Indian automotive industry with the global benchmarks to become a global manufacturing hub.