Aurangabad, Oct 10 (IANS): Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday invited industries to locate in the modern and well-planned Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC) in Maharashtra to help power the country's manufacturing sector.

AURIC is a state-centre initiative with dedicated residential spaces and an investment of over Rs 7,000 crore, making it the beacon of industrialisation of the backward Marathwada region.

Goyal said that AURIC also plans to develop a MITRA textile park, a mega food park and an international convention centre here, making it a truly global investment destination.

Urging investors to come there, the Union Minister said the government is committed to keep logistics costs low and increase the ease of doing business besides doing everything to address the requirements of various stakeholders.

Discussing the National Single Window System for Business Approvals, Goyal said the aim is to ensure that a person sitting anywhere in the world should be able to get all approvals to locate their business in India, buy land, or set up business at the click of a button.

Additionally, the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) - a Special Purpose Vehicle - envisages to establish, promote and facilitate development of the NICDC programme to develop new industrial cities as "smart cities" and converging next generation technologies across infrastructure sectors.

The programme is aimed at providing impetus to planned urbanisation in India with manufacturing as the key driver, Goyal said.

Reiterating the significance of the infrastructure sector for the economy, he said there are various examples wherein infrastructure has created power and economy and brought alive new opportunities.

"We have nearly Rs 111 lakh crore worth of National Infrastructure Pipeline and a large part of it is in Maharashtra. The metro projects, the trans-harbour link, the coastal road project and the expansion of expressways are landmark projects that will benefit Maharashtra in a big way," said Goyal.

The Minister told the investors that macroeconomic fundamentals are strong, infrastructure is being built at a rapid pace, India is the destination the world is looking up to and "together we can make India the future of the world".

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also addressed the investors meeting along with Goyal and other top officials.