6 Major Industrial Clusters Regions of India
6 Major industrial clusters regions of India are: 1.
Hooghly Industrial Belt 2. Mumbai-Pune Industrial Region 3. Ahmedabad-Vadodara
Region 4. Madurai-Coimbatore-Bengaluru Region 5. The Chhotanagpur Plateau
Region 6. Agra-Mathura-Meerut-Saharanpur and Faridabad-Gurgaon-Ambala Belts.
1.
Hooghly Industrial Belt:
This
belt developed around Kolkata as the nucleus. The mouth of River Hooghly
presented ideal conditions for development of a port. The Ganga and Brahmaputra
linked the belt with rich hinterland.
These links were later
supplemented and strengthened by rail and road links.
The
following factors helped in industrialisation of this belt:
(i)
Kolkata was the British Indian capital from 1773 to 1911. This ensured
continuous British capital investment.
(ii)
Tea plantations in
close proximity in Assam and Bengal, processing of indigo earlier and jute
later coupled with the discovery of coal and iron ore in the Chhotanagpur Plateau region contributed
to the industrial development of the Hooghly industrial region.
(iii)
Cheap labour was easily available from thickly populated and out-migrating
states of Bihar, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
By
1921, the Hooghly region accounted for two- thirds of the total factory
employment in the country. Presently, this region supports a variety of
industries which include iron
and steel, heavy engineering, rail equipment, transport equipment, chemicals,
oil refining, agro-processing, textiles, paper, fertilisers and diverse
consumer goods.
The major problems faced by
this region, after independence, include the following.
(i)
Eighty percent of the jute hectarage went to Bangladesh, while most of the
factories were located on the banks of Hooghly.
(ii)
The direct inland link with Assam got broken.
(iii)
Silting of Kolkata port is a major problem. The Farakka barrage is expected to
help the situation, while the new Haldia port may ease the pressure to some
extent.
2.
Mumbai-Pune Industrial Region:
In
1774, the British acquired the island of Mumbai as a site to develop a port. In
1853, the 34-km Mumbai- Thane rail ushered in industrialisation. Opening of
routes through Bhorghat to Pune and through Thalghat to Nasik extended the
region’s influence to the hinterland. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869
established closer links with Europe.
The
Mumbai region had a favourable climate for cotton textiles because of the
following reasons:
(i)
Easy availability of raw cotton from the black soil belt of the Narmada and
Tapti;
(ii)
Coastal humid climate which was ideal for weaving and spinning;
(iii)
Easy availability of hydel
power from the Western Ghats;
(iv)
Location of the port on the west coast which ensured ready access to western
markets; and
(v)
Easy import of capital
goods through the port.
Thus,
this region emerged as the ‘cottonopolis’
of India. With cotton
textiles, a chemical industry also developed soon. Today, the belt has
extended to Kurla, Jogeshwari, Ghatkopar, Villeparle, Andheri, Kalyan, Pimpri,
Pune, Bhandup and Thane. The product range of the industry in the Mumbai-Pune
belt includes textiles,
chemicals, engineering, electrical, drugs, transport equipment, plastic and
synthetic goods, leather goods and ship-building.
The
major problems faced by this belt after independence include the following:
(i)
Eighty per cent of the irrigated, long staple cotton growing areas went to Pakistan.
(ii)
Congestion is a serious problem and reclamation of more land from the sea is
not going to be economical.
3. Ahmedabad-Vadodara Region:
This
region is characterised by an inland location in the cotton growing Gujarat
plains.
The
following factors helped the industrialisation of this region:
(i)
The decline of cotton textile industry of Mumbai due to high transportation
costs of cotton from the peninsular region and easy access of
Ahmedabad-Vadodara region to raw cotton worked to the advantage of this belt.
(ii)
The petrochemical industry around Vadodara and Ankaleshwar developed after oil
was discovered in the Gulf of Cambay.
(iii)
Location of Kandla port is an obvious advantage.
(iv)
The densely populated northern plains in close proximity provided an easy
market.
Now
the region has diversified into diesel engines, textiles machinery, pharmaceuticals and food
processing.
4. Madurai-Coimbatore-Bengaluru Region:
It
is a predominantly cotton and sugarcane growing region, and has developed around silk textiles, sugar, chemicals,
machine tools and leather goods industries. The region receives hydel
power from the Mettur, Sharavathi, Sivasamudram, Papanasam and Pykara projects.
Various public sector enterprises located in this belt include the Hindustan
Machine Tbols, the Visveshwaraiya Iron and Steel Works, the Bharat Electronics, BHEL, the Indian
Telephone Industry and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The important
industrial centres in this belt include Madurai, Sivakasi, Tiruchirappalli,
Bengaluru, Madukottai, Mandya, Mettur, Mysore and Coimbatore.
5. The Chhotanagpur Plateau Region:
The
factors which favoured industrialisation of this region include the following:
(i)
Discovery of coal and iron
in the Bihar- Orissa belt and location of these resources in close proximity to
each other facilitated easy utilisation.
(ii)
Easy availability of power from the Damodar Valley Project and from coal-based thermal power projects
helped in industrialisation.
(iii)
Availability of cheap labour from Bihar, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh was
of great advantage.
(iv)
Proximity to port and access to large market in the vicinity also worked to the
advantage of this belt.
The
important nodal centres in the Chhotanagpur region include Ranchi, Dhanbad,
Chaibasa, Sindri, Hazaibagh, Jamshedpur, Daltonganj, Garwa and Japla. The
important industries in this region include iron and steel, heavy engineering, machine tools, fertilisers,
cement, paper, locomotives and heavy electricals.
6. Agra-Mathura-Meerut-Saharanpur and
Faridabad-Gurgaon-Ambala Belts:
Both
these belts merge in an agglomeration in the vicinity of Delhi. A number of
industrial clusters have assumed importance in this belt after independence,
helped by hydel power from Bhakra and thermal power from Harduaganj and
Faridabad. The majority of industries in this belt are agro-based industries like sugar and textiles.
The
important nodal centres and the industries they support are given below:
Agra:
glassworks, iron
foundries, leather goods;
Mathura:
oil refinery,
petrochemicals;
Faridabad:
engineering, electronics;
Saharanpur,
Yamunanagar: paper mills;
Meerut:
sugar.
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