Maharashtra Approves Rs 100 Crore for Sports Complex and Exhibition Centre in AURIC and DMIC, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

What Was Decided

The Maharashtra state government, through Industries Minister Uday Samant, announced approval of a roughly Rs 100 crore package of development projects aimed at boosting the DMIC and AURIC City areas of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The package covers three distinct facilities: a sports complex, an exhibition centre, and a Marathi language development centre.

The announcement covered a sports complex on 15 acres, an exhibition centre, and a Marathi language development centre, costing roughly Rs 100 crore in total.

Who Decided, and When

The decision was communicated by Uday Samant, Maharashtra's Cabinet Minister for Industries, at a press conference held at the Collector's office in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The centre will be completed within two years, industries minister Uday Samant claimed at a press conference at the Collector's office on Friday. This is a state-government policy announcement rather than a formally gazetted or RERA-style notification; on-the-ground execution runs through AITL and MIDC, the agencies that administer land and infrastructure inside AURIC.

AURIC itself is not a standalone municipal body — it operates as a special purpose vehicle. AURIC is being promoted by the Aurangabad Industrial Township Ltd (AITL), which is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) between Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) and the MIDC.

Operative Details of the Three Projects

• Sports complex: A state-of-the-art sports complex is to be built on 15 acres in the DMIC area at a cost of Rs 50 crore. The minister noted this plan had earlier been proposed on a smaller 9-acre plot near AURIC City before being expanded to the current 15-acre scale, reflecting a revision upward in scope rather than a fresh site decision.
• Exhibition centre: A modern exhibition centre costing Rs 50 crore is planned within AURIC City. A related English-language report on the same announcement describes it as an international convention-style exhibition centre to be completed within two years, tied to rising DMIC/MIDC investment inflows into the region.
• Marathi Language Development Centre: A Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Marathi Language Development Centre costing Rs 10 crore will be set up in the city. Separately, the minister linked this to a policy incentive: if Marathi entrepreneurs from abroad come here to invest, they will be given a 20% concession on all taxes.

Practical Effect on AURIC and DMIC

None of the three facilities is built yet — this is a funding approval and public announcement, not a completion. The exhibition centre is targeted for delivery within roughly two years of the announcement, per the minister's statement, while no separate public timeline was given for the sports complex or the language centre as of 24 July 2026.

The announcement was made alongside broader land-acquisition and investment context for the DMIC belt around Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Land acquisition of about 8,000 acres is underway in the Aarapur and Bidkin areas, and fresh industrial investment of Rs 40,000 crore will come there. The minister also cited existing local employment gains from anchor investors already operating in the corridor, noting 575 local people had got jobs in the Toyota and JSW industries.

For investors and residents, the practical takeaway is that this package adds social and MICE (meetings/exhibitions) infrastructure to a corridor that has so far been almost entirely industrial-plot focused — a step toward making AURIC/DMIC a more complete township rather than a pure manufacturing estate.

Background: Scale of AURIC and DMIC at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

AURIC (Aurangabad Industrial City) is the flagship DMIC node in Maharashtra. AURIC is a planned and greenfield smart industrial city developed across 10,000 acres in Maharashtra, as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). It spans two nodes: the Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park, of which 2,100 hectares was acquired in Shendra and 7,900 hectares in Bidkin.

By late 2025, the corridor's cumulative investment and jobs base had grown substantially. The Shendra and Bidkin belts of Auric City have attracted investments worth Rs 84,761 crore, creating 50,000 direct and about 1.5 lakh indirect jobs. Separately, an official six-year-anniversary update reported that 327 plots have been allotted across 3,039 acres of industrial land and 137 acres of mixed-use land, with an investment potential of over Rs 72,036 crore and capacity for 63,700-plus jobs, while 78 units are operational, 70-plus factories are under construction, and 182-plus are preparing to begin construction. This Rs 100 crore sports/exhibition/language-centre package sits on top of that existing base, funded and announced separately from plot-level industrial investment figures.