Lucknow industrial development gets a revival push

LIDA Master Plan covers 30,000 hectares across 84 villages in Lucknow and Unnao districts

Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA), a proposed development to attract industries from Noida and Greater Noida, is set for a revival with its board approving LIDA Master Plan, spanning 30,000 hectares across 84 villages in Lucknow and Unnao districts.

The LIDA board meeting, chaired by UP infrastructure & industrial development principal secretary and authority chairman Sanjiv Saran, approved the master plan, which trifurcates the notified land into townships A, B and C .

Township A is a multifunctional zone near Lucknow; Township B comprises tourism zone around the Nawabganj bird sanctuary; and Township C is the industrial zone in Unnao.

The notified land would comprise 26 per cent residential land, 21 per cent industrial, 20 per cent green, 16 per cent transportation zone and the remaining for commercial and mixed land uses.

The master plan seeks synergy with the Lucknow master plan and provides for parallel railway cargo corridor with a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) for transportation. The board has fixed Rs 886 per sq mt and Rs  725 per sq mt as internal and external development fees, respectively, to be charged by LIDA from developers and builders.

A high-level committee has been formed to procure land directly from farmers. The committee is expected to come up with its action plan at the next board meeting, scheduled on August 24.

Uttar Pradesh government had constituted LIDA in July 2005, when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister. It was aimed at boosting industrial and commercial activities in the region and attracting investment beyond the National Capital Region pockets of UP.

However, it has largely remained comatose ever since, although its board had been meeting regularly. In fact, the draft master plan was approved by the LIDA board in November 2013.

LIDA made sluggish progress during the previous Mayawati rule, though her government had planned to acquire about 2,000 acres along the Lucknow-Unnao highway in the first phase. LIDA had also faced land acquisition hurdles.

Earlier, LIDA had tied up with Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited for loans of about Rs 73 crore.