Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday urged states that there should be no politicisation of economic development and that they should all work collectively as Team India to iron out the issues in developing industrial corridors.

Her comments came while chairing the second meeting of the apex monitoring authority of the National Industrial Corridor Development & Implementaton Trust (NICDIT) through virtual mode.

The meeting took place just days after chief ministers of eight states like Delhi, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu among others, had boycotted the meeting of the governing council of Niti Aayog, which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 27.

They had alleged that the Centre has violated the spirit of cooperative federalism through several of its recent decisions.

Meanwhile, Sitharaman sought the support of the states to resolve the issues in operationalising the industrial corridors such as expediting land acquisition and facilitating implementation of external infrastructure linkages, among other issues.

The meeting was also attended by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, vice chairman of Niti Aayog Suman Very and officials of 16 states as well as officials of various central ministries.

Sitharaman reviewed the progress of projects under NICDIT.

NICDIT aims to create greenfield smart industrial cities with sustainable, ‘plug n play’ & ICT-enabled utilities.

During the review, special secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) apprised that as per the directions of the finance minister in the previous meeting, round-table conferences, roadshows and meetings with international associations are being organised at different places with support of states and special purpose vehicles.

NICDIT is within the overall framework of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan.

It aims to create quality infrastructure and keep land parcels ready for allotment to attract investments in the manufacturing sector and position India strongly in global value chains.

For the development of industrial corridor nodes, multi-modal connectivity is being provided by different central ministries under various flagship schemes like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, National Waterways, Dedicated Freight Corridors and National Gas Grid among others.

Sitharaman during the meeting, emphasised on the importance of freight corridors, industrial corridors, Railways and Expressways to further ignite industrialisation and economic development in India.