Panchkula ignores industrial progress for housing growth

INDUSTRIAL AREA UPDATE-II

It is yet another evidence of housing development overshadowing industrial growth in Panchkula. The hustling bustling city, which in the last few years has come in the reckoning with Chandigarh in providing world-class amenities to its residents, has overlooked the progress of industries.

Satish Gupta, chairman of the Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI), reveals that industrial area in Panchkula is virtually a non-entity.

Even as the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has allotted 878 industrial units in the Panchkula industrial area, the lack of an encouraging atmosphere for industries and infrastructure loopholes have resulted in around 30 per cent of plots still lying vacant.

The industrial area in Panchkula, created by HUDA around three decades back, continues to be the same with no additional land made available for the industries.

The industrial area in the city houses manufacturing units engaged in building materials like furniture and decorated laminates, sanitary ware manufacturers, pharmaceutical units and also the ancillary units catering to the tractor industry, mainly to HMT Tractors in Pinjore.

But with HMT tractors in Pinjore declining their annual production, the tractor ancillary units in the Panchkula region diversified to cater to other auto and allied industry.

Rajnish Garg, member, HCCI, maintains that the number of industrial units in the Panchkula industrial area is dwindling, due to non-committal attitude of the state government.

With neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir offering tax holiday to the industries, industries from the city have started shifting their bases to these states.

The impact of incentives to the neighbouring states affecting Panchkula’s industrial units could be gauged from the fact that the pharmaceutical unit, which once constituted around 25 per cent of the Panchkula industrial units, now accounts for only 5 per cent with most of the industrialists shifting their bases.

Another factor that has affected the growth of industries in the Panchkula region is the infrastructure. The poor conditions of road and erratic power supply continue to haunt the existing industries in Panchkula.

With limited space available for expansion of industries in the Panchkula industrial area and stringent norms taken by HUDA, the existing industries are finding it hard to expand as well as to survive.