The Punjab Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann approved the new industrial and electric vehicle policies here on Friday.

The approval of both the policies comes days ahead of an investors' summit to be organised by the state government on February 23-24 in Mohali.

Cabinet on Friday approved the state's new industrial policy, with infrastructure, power, MSMEs key focus areas.

The cabinet also accorded approval to Punjab Electric Vehicle Policy (PEVP)- 2022 with a move to check the environmental pollution in the state due to emission from vehicles, said an official statement here.

The EV policy desires to reduce vehicular emission, create infrastructure, manufacturing, research and development, job creation, ensuring sustainability, besides establishing Punjab as a favoured destination for manufacturing of electric vehicles, components and batteries, it said.

Meanwhile, the new industrial and business development policy, 2022 shall be effective from October 17, 2022, the time when the previous policy's period ended, and the new policy will remain in force for five years.

The new industrial policy lays thrust on creating an enabling environment for the industries and businesses for balanced economic growth, job creation and overall development of the state.

The new policy is structured around key strategic focus areas--infrastructure, power, MSMEs, large enterprises, innovation, startup and entrepreneurship, skill development, ease of doing business, fiscal and non fiscal incentive, export promotion logistic, stakeholder engagement and grievance redressal, said an official statement here.

As per the policy, the state will develop 15 industrial parks covering general and sector specific requirements of various industrial sectors and 20 rural clusters across the state.

As per the policy, the manufacturing of auto or auto components including electric vehicles, sports goods including fitness equipment, hand tools including power tools and machine tools, agricultural machinery and equipment, paper based packaging units, circular economy activity including shredding units, and one district one product have been included in the category of thrust sector for the purpose of higher fiscal incentives.

Housing and Urban development minister Aman Arora told reporters here that the new industrial policy pitches Punjab as a favourite investment destination, adding that the chief minister has recently visited some states in the country to garner investments.

About the EV policy, Arora said that electric vehicles are the future and that government has already announced incentives for those switching over to electric vehicles under the vehicle scrapping policy.

Charging stations will also be installed on a large scale in the state, he said.

Arora said the cabinet also accorded its approval for the introduction of public mining sites to ensure that sand and gravel are available at reasonable rates to common people.

Initially, 18 such sites will come up in 7 districts, of which, one will be inaugurated on February 5 by the chief minister, he said.

By the end of March, 50 such sites will be functional in the state. It will also ease up supply and make sand easily available to the public, said Arora.

Mining and Geology Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer had recently said, "These sites will help in checking any malpractice to jack up the prices of sand and truly give the freedom of choice to the common man to buy sand from the source of his choice and at the price of his choice."

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