I was with a fasteners manufacturer from Mumbai. He bought a new plot for expansion. 18,000 sft in Vasai for 12 Crore!! Hurdles came when local extortionists brought a stay order to stop construction. That was settled after delays of months.

Cost of electricity for him is about ₹13/unit. In China it’s ₹5-6. Electricity is a major cost in manufacturing 30-35% of cost esp if one is running heat treatment in-house.

Add all other costs - getting electricity itself, water, pollution certificate etc etc.

Fasteners is such a competitive item. India is putting tariff and non tariff barriers in its imports coz local price is more. But we will not be competitive on global scale, and hurt our export prospects for final assembled goods as intermediate products that go into it are expensive. 

We need a system of leased land for manufacturers so that they use their capital to buy machinery, not land. Low cost electricity, good connectivity, relaxed regulation and compliances. This alone will enable us to easily compete against China in cost terms - even as China manipulates to maintain marketshare and has over capacity.

Unfortunately, our short sighted gvts target revenue from land sale - with bribes to allocate land!!, create complex laws that are smacks of their controlling mindset, geared for rent seeking - rather than have a long term vision for developing the manufacturing sector which will have multiplier effect on the economy.