MIDC wants its unused land back ………Clara Lewis
Mumbai: Around 4,500 entrepreneurs sitting on Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land have been issued notices to vacate the plots. With growing demand for land for industrialisation and increasing difficulties in acquiring agricultural land, the state government has decided to evict all those who have been allotted land but are not utilising it.
The MIDC, set up to promote industries across the state, has 232 industrial estates comprising 48,335 plots. These plots range in size from one acre to over 10 acres.
Landthe basic requirement to set up an industryhas become a scarce commodity. We have to generate land for new industries so that we can create more jobs. Hence, we decided to look at how many industries had actually come up. In Thane, we have a case where no industry has been set up for the last 15 years, said industries minister, Rajendra Darda.
A quick look at some of the premier industrial estates showed that there were several entrepreneurs who had done nothing on the land allotted to them.
Darda said if entrepreneurs approached the MIDC explaining why they were not able to set up their units, their case would be considered for some time, but a penalty would have to paid for all the years the land had been lying waste. We will give an entrepreneur a year to start production. He or she will have to get the plot regularised by paying a penalty, get immediate approval for the construction plans and start production by the end of the year or forfeit the land.
In view of the high demand for land, Darda said industries would have to justify why they need a certain quantum of land. Earlier, we would sanction whatever was demanded, but not anymore. We now insist on seeing their plans and the kind of plant and machinery they will set up here. Recently, a foreign tetrapack company had sought 100 acres to set up an industry here. We convinced them to settle for 40 acres, he said.
The MIDC, he said, currently owned 55,000 hectares and was in the process of acquiring another 65,000 hectares for Special Economic Zones.