Describing his visit to South Korea and Japan as a major success, Mr. Hooda said it was unfortunate that Haryana had had long-serving Chief Ministers in the past but they had ignored things like infrastructure and connectivity.

Stating that India was emerging as a major economic power and a manufacturing hub for South-East Asia, the Chief Minister said he had written to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry offering 4,000 acres of land for a new international airport at Asoda near Bahadurgarh.

Interestingly, Asoda used to have an airstrip but the same was blown up by freedom-fighters led by Mr. Hooda's father, Ranbir Singh.

Talking about the changing face of the National Capital Region (NCR) and the efforts being put in by the Haryana Government, Mr. Hooda said for attracting any foreign or domestic investment it is important that infrastructure, connectivity, power and water and law and order should be the priorities.

In this connection, work had already started on construction of the 135-km-long expressway on the periphery of Delhi.

This expressway would en route touch National Highways at four points ensuring that best connectivity is provided for movement of commercial as well as private vehicular traffic. Elaborating further on his plans to make things happen, Mr. Hooda said an action plan had been drawn up to put in place a "global corridor" around the Capital that would run along the expressway.

It would possibly have two train tracks running slow and fast trains, infrastructure as well as commercial projects providing better facilities and connectivity to the Capital.

Mr. Hooda disclosed that after his talks with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, it had been decided to extend the Metro Rail link from Dwarka into Gurgaon.

Similarly studies had been awarded for taking the Metro Rail to Faridabad, Bahadurgarh and Kundli covering all the border links with Delhi.

New townships

In addition to this, it is proposed to development three new townships to ease pressure on the present cities.

The Haryana Government had already issued a notification for setting up Rajiv Gandhi Education City on the Kundli-Sonepat section. Nearly 2,000 acres of land had been acquired for the purpose and work on the project would begin very soon.

Stressing that it was important to ensure regular supply of power in order to attract investors and investments, Mr. Hooda, who was the first Chief Minister of India to be invited to South Korea, said already work on two mega power projects has been started.

This included the 1050 MW gas based project at Faridabad, 1050 MW project at Jhajjar. Other projects in the pipeline include 600 MW coal based power project at Yamunangar, 600 MW power project at Panipat and 1000 MW coal-based project at Hissar.

"The idea is to ensure generation of nearly 5000 MW of additional power during the next three to four years so that Haryana becomes self-sufficient power State," he added.