Unused industrial land to be returned to owners

25k acres were earmarked for industries in state

The state government is set to return to owners a large chunk of unutilised land - 25,740 acres - that was earmarked for industrial purpose across the state.

These lands, spread across Belagavi, Haveri, Kalaburagi, Gadag, Chitradurga, Bagalkot and Chamarajanagar districts, have remained unused for the past nine years. They were identified for the creation of a land bank by the previous BJP regime under the Suvarna Karnataka Development Corridor (SKDC) project in 2008.

The SKDC comprises five major corridors covering 11 districts and 20 major towns along highways, major roads and rain links.

“A large extent of land remains unused because they are located in places where industries cannot be set up,” Industries Minister R V Deshpande told DH. “So naturally, we will have to return those lands, for which only preliminary notification has been issued. I will bring this before the Cabinet.”

This will be the second parcel of unutilised industrial land that the State government will be returning to the owners. The government returned 13,788 acres of unused land to landowners across eight districts in September last year. The highest extent returned was 4,478.34 acres in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s home district of Mysuru.

Under the SKDC, a total of 1.21 lakh acres were identified for steel, engineering, textile parks and township projects. Of this, the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) issued preliminary notification - under Section 28(1) of the KIADB Act, 1966 - for acquisition of 80,182.35 acres.

But the final notification under Section 28(4) was issued for only 40,924.13 acres. The remaining 39,258 acres remained locked under Section 28(1), which made it difficult for owners, mostly farmers, to either grow anything or raise loans on them. Of the 1.21 lakh acres identified, Belagavi accounts for the highest at 12,973 acres, followed by Ramanagara (12,205 acres) and Ballari (11,245 acres).

Cong too

Interestingly, the Congress government, too, had initiated the acquisition process by issuing preliminary notification. As of June 2013, preliminary notification was issued for 53,175 acres. This increased to 80,182 acres in 2016, which means the Congress government continued to issue Section 28(1) notices under the SKDC land bank, a concept Siddaramaiah resented as leader of the opposition in 2012.

The government scrapped the land bank concept ahead of the 2016 Invest Karnataka summit. "Principally, the land back was a good concept, but way too much land was identified. That made it impractical," an official from the department of commerce and industry said.

Alternatively, the KIADB developed a GIS-based portal to show availability of industrial land. As many as 4,372 ready industrial plots are vacant, many in north Karnataka.