PATNA, Feb. 1 -- Ahead of the Union Budget to be placed in the Lok Sabha on Sunday, industry bodies in the state are keeping high hopes that the Centre would provide several incentives to the industry and business sector for boosting trade and commerce in the state. "We want that there should be some special incentives given for states like Bihar for boosting the industrial sector in terms of tax incentives so that businesses get attracted for higher investment,'' said president of the Bihar Industries Association Ram Lal Khaitan. The BIA secretary Anil Kumar Sinha said that the association had made a few suggestions for the upcoming budget to the ministry of finance in which it was highlighted that it is very necessary to provide income tax incentive to the industries coming up with new investment in the next five years in Bihar. The association said that there is also a need for development of five to six industrial townships along the Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata industrial corridor , fund for acceleration of pace of urbanisation in the state and also mitigation of floods. The association has also stressed that river transport is the cheapest mode of transport for goods as compared to railways and it is imperative that the project of Ganga river navigable from Haldia to Allahabad is done at the earliest so that waterways transportation is operational. "In this perspective, we have demanded that a special financial support of Rs.50,000 crore annually for a period of 10 years (may be long term interest free loan) be given to the state for the development of industrial township in the catchment area of Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata industrial corridor in the state, for development of dedicated sea port with expressway connectivity and dry port facilities and development of other core sectors in the state including tourism and infrastructure," said Sinha. The BIA also has made several suggestions for the growth of MSME sector, GST, banking and industrial finance and startups. The Bihar Chamber of Commerce too has given suggestions to the Union finance ministry demanding that Bihar should have more funds for industrial growth, higher allocations in state schemes, opening of closed sugar mills and setting up of semiconductor hubs and industrial parks. "We are hopeful the Union government would be giving more support to the state government in the Union budget to boost industrialisation and enterprises in the state," said PK Agrawal, president of the Bihar chamber of commerce. Meanwhile, the Opposition party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), too has demanded that the Union finance minister should announce special category status to Bihar and also grant the central university status to Patna University. "The Union government has long denied the state the special status category and not implemented many of the promises made by the NDA government at the Centre like setting up of a dam across Kosi river, several expressways and provision of funds for infrastructure growth. The demand for the central university status to Patna university is long pending. We expect the Union budget on Sunday would be fulfilling all these demands," said Chittaranjan Gagan, the RJD spokesperson....