The Union Cabinet gave its approval for returning of approximately 478 hectares of land to the state government of Madhya Pradesh. The land returned would be utilized by the state government for allotment to the auto and related ancillary industries which will have a synergistic effect with the existing NATRAX project. 

Out of the total area of the land, approximately 461 hectares is privately acquired and 16 hectares belongs to the government. It is valued at approximately Rs 740 crore of Auto Testing Track in Pithampur, Indore (NATRiX) in Madhya Pradesh of National Automotive Testing & R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) Project. 

The project is the initiative of the government of India, a number of state governments and the Indian automotive industry to create a state-of-the-art testing, validation and R&D infrastructure in the country. Thus far, the test centres which have been completed under the project include the CAD and CAE Lab at ICAT Manesar, GARC Chennai and NATRAX Indore; accident data analysis centre at NCVRS Raebareli and Model I&M Mechanics Training Institute at NIAIMT Silchar. Work is underway at other facilities and at different stages of completions.

Also read: NATRiP guns for timely completion of its testing facilities