The Hindu Business Line : Closed units could help solve land problem: Bengal Minister

THE West Bengal Government is ready to allow owners of the closed industrial units to convert lands and existing available infrastructure of those units into "industrial parks" provided initiatives are taken by them. This was assured here on Monday by the State Minister of Commerce & Industries, Mr Nirupam Sen.

Answering questions at the interactive session organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce, Mr Sen said that the availability of non-agricultural government land was quite meagre in the State vis-à-vis the growing demand for land by prospective investors who are keen to set up manufacturing units. Private land might be available in certain parts of the State but it would be costly. The land problem, to some extent, could be solved only by utilising idle land and properties of the closed units.

Since most of the closed units are owned by private promoters, the State Government legally had no scope to convert these into industrial parks. However, the Government had no reservation to allowing owners of those units to do so.

The Minister emphasised that the State Government was giving top priority to regain the State's lost glory as one of the most advanced industrial States in the country. In fact, private investors were recently showing keen interest to investing in greenfield projects in the State, particularly in sponge iron and steel sector. Over Rs 7,000 crore had already been invested in this sector during the last one decade. More investments were expected in the coming months because of locational advantage.

He said that traditional industries in the State such as jute, tea and engineering were currently facing stiff competition - jute from synthetic products and tea because of the imports of cheaper varieties of tea, while engineering industry was in bad shape due to closure of some major Central public sector engineering undertakings. In a given scenario, the State Government was giving more stress on iron and steel manufacturing sector.

However, Mr Sen informed that Pepsico had decided to set up a unit in the State to produce potato-based products. The required land for the project had been purchased by the company at Howrah. Dabur India Ltd has decided to set up agro-based industries in North Bengal.

Welcoming private investment in the infrastructure sector, Mr Sen said the State Government would set up two separate industrial parks - one for foundry and the other for rubber products. He was confident that the State would be able to attract private investment of about Rs 2,500 crore during the current fiscal.

The State Government was facing a resource crunch due to the increasing outgo of funds on building social infrastructure facilities like health and education. Therefore, the Government might not be able to provide major fiscal incentives to industries, he indicated.

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