State government to create land bank for Invest Karnataka summit

The state government will create a land bank that will be showcased at the flagship Invest Karnataka summit that will be held in November 2022, Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani said on Friday.

The global investors’ meet, which has seen multiple postponements due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is now scheduled to be held on November 2-4 next year.

“There’s still one year left. We will identify and acquire 50-200 acres of land for industrial use in taluks. In the districts, we will look for up to 1,000 acres. In Tier-1 cities, the acquisition will be need-based,” Nirani said in the Assembly during question hour.

He was responding to questions raised by former ministers Eshwar Khandra, Rajashekhar Patil and Priyank Kharge.

Justifying the need for a land bank, Nirani recalled the circumstances in which Karnataka lost out to Gujarat for the manufacturing of Tata Nano in 2010. “The then chief minister BS Yediyurappa held discussions with the company to set up shop in Dharwad. Everything was final, but we did not have 1,000 acres of land ready. They went to Gujarat. We lost an opportunity,” he said.

According to the minister, Karnataka’s total geographical area is 4.73 crore acres. “Of this, cultivable land is 3.07 lakh acres and forest land is 94,148 acres. For industries, we have 1.50 lakh acres, which is 0.48% of the total area,” he explained.

To a concern raised by Patil on effluents from chemical factories causing pollution in Humnabad, Nirani said the proposed drug park in Yadgir will address the problem. “To prevent chemical factories from coming up in taluks, we have identified 3,000 acres in Yadgir for a global-level drug park. The Centre is giving us a grant of Rs 1,000 crore for this. The drug park will prevent pollution caused by effluents discharged from chemical factories,” he said.

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