In a bid to attract investment and ensure hassle-free land acquisition for major projects, the Odisha government today decided to create land banks in ten districts for industrial development.
The state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO), assigned to work for infrastructure development for different industrial projects, would create the land banks.
“IDCO has so far identified more than two lakh acres of compact land patches suitable for industrial use,” said state Industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra.
The minister said the state wanted to keep land ready for setting up industries and investors would not have to wait for land acquisition, they would be offered land as soon as they come forward for investment.
Mishra was speaking on the sidelines of a high-level meeting chaired by Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik.
The ten districts to have land banks are — Jagatsinghpur (Paradip), Bhadrak (Dhamra), Cuttack, Khurda, Dhenkanal, Angul, Sundergarh (Rourkela), Jharsuguda, Jajpur (Kalinga Nagar) and Balasore.
Patnaik has directed the agency to split target dates for completion of sector specific industrial parks into monitorable milestones, he said adding, the Chief Secretary would review the progress of land banks every month and report to the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister also asked IDCO to take CSR activities more seriously and expedite projects like Craft Museum, Mission Shakti Building and Krishi Bhawans.
Mishra said IDCO has created Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for various industrial parks such as steel downstream at Kalinga Nagar, Aluminium Park at Angul, Plastic Park and PCPIR (petroleum, chemicals and petro-chemical investment regime) at Paradip and Electronics Park and SEZ Park in Bhubaneswar.
“IDCO has also developed SPVs for a railway corridor and sports development,” Mishra said.
The agency has also set different deadlines for completion of these projects.
Besides these, the IDCO has also taken up two SEZ projects — Infocity and Infovalley — at Bhubaneswar and four PPP projects in different districts, the minister said.
Replying a question, Mishra said the agency has taken up development work of three investment regions like PCPIR-Paradip, National Investment Manufacturing Zone-Kalinga Nagar and Special Investment Region-Dhamra.
Prasanta Patnaik