Bengal govt to survey land held by shut industrial units, frame policy on reuse

The West Bengal government will survey unused land owned by closed industries and vacant SEZs to promote manufacturing, MSME clusters and entrepreneurship. It plans to prioritise industrial reuse over real estate, supporting employment, investment, and higher state tax revenue through direct land purchase

Kolkata: The West Bengal Land and Revenue Department has decided to soon conduct a thorough survey of unused land parcels owned by closed or defunct industrial houses, identify the possibilities of their reuse for specific industrial promotions and accordingly frame a concrete policy on this count.

However, an insider from the state secretariat of Nabanna said that the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dispensation in the state is against following the practice pursued during the previous Left Front and Trinamool Congress regimes, where unused land held by closed industries was used for real estate development.

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Instead, said the source, the state government is keen on the use of these unused land parcels held by closed or defunct industrial units by making them available to investors or for setting up MSME clusters, providing space for first-time entrepreneurs with viable projects.

“In case any portion in such land parcels is allotted for real estate, it would be the bare minimum and also the last option only if proper investment proposals are not available for some portions within those land parcels for any viable entrepreneurship projects,” the state government insider said.

In such land parcels too, the new state government will follow the “direct land purchase” policy, where the state government will directly purchase the land and subsequently allot it for industrial development. At the same time, the state secretariat insider said that there will also be a survey of the unused land allotted within different special economic zones (SEZs) in the state during the Left Front regime and also make this land available for industrial development or for promoting business ventures by first-time entrepreneurs.

“The entire objective of the survey for proper utilisation of land for entrepreneurship is based on three main targets — promoting manufacturing and economic activity, employment generation and improving the state’s own tax revenue generation,” said the state secretariat insider.

While the previous Left Front regimes encouraged SEZs over limited land parcels within an area in and around Kolkata to promote industrial projects and entrepreneurship, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, as a matter of policy, refused permissions for fresh SEZs during its entire term of 15 years from 2011 to 2026.

Already, the new West Bengal government under the leadership of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has adopted concrete policy decisions for industrial development purposes. The foremost among those policies is a uniform land procurement policy for all purposes, be it for industrial promotion or for infrastructural development or land handover to the Border Security Force (BSF) for security purposes in areas close to the international borders in the state.

Under this “direct land purchase” policy, the state government has decided to directly purchase land from the owners and make it available for the purpose for which it has been acquired. The second important policy decision is to review and bring suitable amendments to the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 (ULCRA), to improve land availability for industrial and infrastructure projects.