State to urge Centre to scale down land need for NMIZ

With acquisition of a patch of 5,000 hectares of contiguous land for the proposed National Manufacturing and Investment Zone (NMIZ) seeming to be an uphill task, the Orissa government will urge the Centre to scale down land requirement for the zone.

“The state government will send its comments to the Centre soon on the NMIZ. We will urge the Government of India (GoI) to scale down land requirement since acquisition of 5,000 hectares of contiguous land is never going to be easy. What we feel is that land quantum can be brought down to 1,000 hectares and the zone can still be developed. Acquisition of huge tracts of land for industrial zones may be a workable model in China but in India, especially in Orissa, it is fraught with hassles”, a top official source told Business Standard.

Top state officials recently had a meeting to discuss on the proposed NMIZ. Earlier, two rounds of negotiations with the stakeholders have already been held for development of NMIZ in the state.

With the state facing problems in acquiring land on a huge scale for big ticket projects like Posco, acquiring 5,000 hectares needed for NMIZ of contiguous land did not seem feasible, the official added.

The state government had identified the Kalinga Nagar industrial cluster in Jajpur district and Bolangir in the economically backward KBK (Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput) region as probable locations for development of NMIZ. However, it was yet to zero in on any location for the zone.

The Centre has decided to set up the NMIZ in Rajasthan along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project (DMIC) in order to give a major boost to manufacturing sector.

The NMIZs would be managed by a special purpose vehicle, headed by a government official and having experts, including those on environment. The industrial townships will be self-governing and autonomous bodies.

The first phase of the NIMZ will be set up along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and is expected to come on stream in the next few years.

The DMIC project covers six states including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, representing 43 per cent of the country's GDP, 50 per of industrial production and exports and 40 per cent of total workforce.

The government estimates that the project will offer employment to over three million people.

The NMIZs would be a combination of production units, public utilities, logistics, environmental protection mechanism, residential areas and administrative services.

It would have a processing area where the manufacturing facilities along with associated logistics and other services as well as required infrastructure will be located.

The processing area may include one or more Special Economic Zones (SEZs), industrial parks and warehousing zones and export oriented units.

Besides, there will be a non-processing area to include residential, commercial and other social and institutional infrastructure.