Led by Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), the 50-member delegation will hold extensive consultations with the state's big and small industrial houses as well as the government, at the Science City campus. The visiting delegates will also meet Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

In Gandhinagar, the Japanese team will meet industry department officials, including Principal Secretary D Rajagopalan and Industries Commissioner Gauri Kumar, and discuss the state's preparedness for the project. Apart from official interaction, the group will also visit the Chhatral plant of Hitachi, a Japanese group that already has facilities in the state.

The government is expecting up to USD 40 billion worth of investments within Gujarat through the joint Indo-Japanese project. Officials see the state as the fulcrum of the project. Among other things, the influence area of DMIC in Gujarat would cover 62 per cent of the State, 74 per cent of the population in 18 of the 25 districts, and would include 29 of the 39 upcoming SEZs.

"It is an exploratory visit to see what we can provide, specifically in the field of auto ancillary, ceramics, and ports sectors. The thrust would be on informing the Japanese how we are best prepared to provide a high growth trajectory for their investments. The policy framework is in place, the institutional synergy is there, and we have excellent record of public-private partnerships in infrastructure areas like power, ports and roads," said an official.

State government bureaucrats are already salivating at the prospects. "Coupled with the Delhi-Mumbai dedicated freight corridor, the DMIC is set to push Gujarat on a very different growth path. The distance between our ports and the north Indian hinterland would reduce by as much as one third given the accelerated speed at which freight movement would take place," industry department officials said.

It will be the mother of all investments in Gujarat

The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) — India's mega infrastructure project in association with Japan — will be the mother of all investments in Gujarat.

The state is all set to get a whopping 40 per cent of the total investments in the project. From Palanpur in Banaskantha to Valsad down south, the DMIC will traverse 38 per cent of its 1,483-km route through Gujarat.

*Total investment in the industrial corridor is pegged at around USD 100 billion, of which close to half will come from Japan through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) loans. Up to 40 per cent might come Gujarat's way.

*About three million jobs are expected to be generated along the corridor. With 38 per cent of it passing through Gujarat, it translates into a million jobs for the state on a proportionate basis.