India News | Gujarat Ready to Emerge as Global Leader in Green Hydrogen Production: Guv Devvrat in Assembly

Gandhinagar, Feb 1 (PTI) The Gujarat government is focusing on making the state a hub for green hydrogen production and has earmarked 2 lakh hectares of land for potential investors to set up units, Governor Acharya Devvrat said on Thursday.

Addressing the Gujarat Assembly on the first day of the Budget session, he said the state is capable of becoming a global leader in the production of green hydrogen - hydrogen produced using renewable energy (RE).

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"The state government is focusing on building green hydrogen production capacity to make Gujarat a hub for green hydrogen production and export. The Land Policy 2023 announced recently by the state has earmarked 2 lakh hectares for allotment to developers. It will help us in achieving production capacity of 40 lakh metric tonnes per annum," he said in his address.

"MoUs were signed in the green hydrogen sector in the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit held last month. Thus, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat is capable and ready to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen production," the governor added.

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He said GIFT City is emerging as a global financial hub and exports from the Special Economic Zone of this smart city has increased from Rs 3,402 crore in FY 2020-21 to Rs 19,317.19 crore till December in FY 2023-24.

"GIFT City today houses two international stock exchanges, banks and insurance companies. Singapore Nifty has shifted its operation from Singapore to GIFT City and financial transactions worth USD 431 billion have been carried out till now," he said.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, Rs 15,407.82 crore has been directly deposited in the bank accounts of 64.13 lakh beneficiary farmers in 15 installments till date in the state, Devvrat told the House.

The state government has approved two new pipeline schemes for the villages of Tharad, Dhanera, Deesa, Diyodar and Kankrej talukas of Banaskantha district in north Gujarat which were deprived of Narmada water.

These schemes will provide benefits of direct/indirect irrigation on an area of 15,000 hectares, the governor added.

"The state government has fixed the target to complete works related to providing drinking water through tap to all the rural households under 'Nal Se Jal Yojana' of the Jal Jivan Mission. The state government has given tap connection to more than 91 lakh households," he said.

A sum of Rs 1478.37 crore has been spent till the end of November 2023 for the overall development of socially and educationally backward classes, economically weaker sections, minorities and nomadic tribes, he said.

The BJP government is focussing on strengthening infrastructure in the education sector, the governor informed.

He said work has undertaken for the construction of 15,400 new classrooms in 3,528 schools and for repairing work of 24,779 classrooms of 2403 schools in 2023-24 at a cost of Rs 3,318.62 crore.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)