UP to utilise vacant govt land to meet demand

The proposal seeks to use unutlised land for infrastructure and industrial development

To overwhelm the land bank crunch for industrial development, the Uttar Pradesh government is mulling utilising vacant land with government departments and state controlled bodies.

In fact, the government has already started the process of identifying unutilised land with such departments and agencies.

The land is proposed to be used for infrastructure and industrial development.

UP Infrastructure & Industrial Investment Policy 2012 provides for creation of land bank to facilitate infrastructure and industrial development, state infrastructure & industrial development principal-secretary Surya Pratap Singh said here.

To fulfill the objective and to avoid acquiring double crop land for infrastructure and industrial development, the government has decided to use unutilised government land instead.

He chaired a comprehensive meeting on Thursday with officials of 22 government departments and bodies in this regard.

He has directed for providing details and records of unutilised land within a week, so that suitable land could be identified and allotted for infrastructure and industrial development.

UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) is already in the process of acquiring about 4,000 acres of land for allotment to industrial units.

While 2,600 acres of land would be acquired in Chola (Bulandshahr district), another 1,300 acres of land would is proposed to be acquired in trans-Ganga area of Kanpur.

The UP State Industrial Development Corporation is set to introduce e-tendering and e-allotment of industrial plots. The Corporation has been asked to take pro-industry measures and prop up its brand, which had suffered in past years due to malpractices.

Singh had earlier exhorted the UP State Industrial Development Corporation regional managers to treat investors like kings and meet divisional commissioners/district magistrates for resolving issues of land and infrastructure development.

Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) had been asked to explore an early bird project at Chola as UPSIDC is willing to invest 1,500 acres as equity in the project.