JOIN USThe Odisha government on Monday decided to create a land bank of one lakh acre to facilitate industrial houses to set up their units in the state without facing any problem in land acquisition.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Briefing newspersons, Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati said the decision would help in clearing a major problem being faced by industries and investors keen to set up their units in the state.
“Land acquisition had always remained a major problem in the state to set up industries. Investors coming here were forced to wait for long periods of time because of the hurdle. With the creation of the land bank, the industrial houses can come and take possession of the land for their units quickly,” Pati said.
He informed that both private and government land would be acquired for the proposed land bank and the state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) would be in charge of acquiring the land in different districts besides developing them suitably for the industries.
There would also be a district level committee under the chairmanship of the collector to identify the land which will be acquired for the land bank. Representatives of other departments like forest and environment would be members of these district-level committees.
Almost all major industrial houses that came forward to set up units in the state had faced land acquisition problems. Steel giant Arcelor-Mittal who wanted to set up its mega steel unit in tribal-dominated Keonjhar district had faced land-related difficulties. The group has already withdrawn its project from Odisha since long.
Similarly, it took more than a decade for the state government to acquire land for the prestigious Posco’s steel project in coastal Jagatsinghpur district.