BANGALORE: Elucidating the thrust areas that are bound to see rapid growth in his State, Rajasthan Minister for Industries and NRIs Narpat Singh Rajvi said here on Sunday that the desert State has immense potential for industrial growth because of its good infrastructure, power supply and communication facilities. These facilities are even better than those in Karnataka and many other States, he said.

Mr. Rajvi was speaking at an interactive session among entrepreneurs of Karnataka organised by the Bangalore Chapter of the Rajasthan Foundation here.

The Rajasthan Minister said the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project will open up new development opportunities for Rajasthan.

The Rajasthan Government was developing an IT city in the State through a private-public partnership and this will be opened on August 16. A project has been taken up in Tirpur to reduce water losses to just 4 per cent. In cities such as Bangalore and Jaipur, the water loss is more than 50 per cent.

He planned to launch a pilot project in Rajasthan that will replicate the project being carried out at Tirpur. He said the Centre has neglected the desert State by not conferring special category status on it for encouraging tourism and industrial development as has been done in the case of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Chhatishgarh and the North-Eastern States.

Mr. Rajvi asked the entrepreneurs to come and see for themselves the potential that the State had for industrial growth and said the Government will extend subsidy, power and communication facilities. The gems and jewellery industry is doing well and has registered exports estimated at Rs. 1,000 crores. Handicraft exports has earned Rs. 1,200 crores last year. The textile industry is looking up and the Government plans to set up two lakh looms in the next one year. The State Government is trying to boost the tourism by popularising historical sites in the State, he said.

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