Global tender to audit all industrial areas in Karnataka

The state government will float a global tender to pick an agency to audit all 188 industrial areas amid concerns that hundreds of acres of land, meant for manufacturing or other such businesses, have been usurped or are lying vacant.

An estimated 2,000 acres of industrial lands are “dead” because of encroachments or simply because they are not being used, Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani told DH.

“In the first phase, the land audit will cover Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts. It will be done in Tier-2 cities as well,” Nirani said. “And, to make sure there’s no blame game, we’re floating a global tender for this. All 188 industrial areas will be surveyed.”

The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has acquired 1.62 lakh acres of land all over the state. This includes land for industrial areas (83,058.35 acres) and single-unit complexes (79,017.25 acres).

An oft-repeated complaint is that several industries do not start operations for years together after being allotted KIADB land. Besides identifying such anomalies, Nirani said the land audit will flag other issues as well.

“For example, let’s say there are 1,000 acres, which include roads. The extent of land available should match with the allotments. If 995 acres are allotted, what happens to the remaining five acres? An officer will show it as a road or park,” Nirani said.

“We also have cases where an allottee would have paid money for the allotment and not use the land. Or, there’d have been an allotment without payment.”

The minister cited an example of land that was allotted to the Khoday Group, one of India’s oldest liquor companies. “Near Channenahalli on Magadi Road, 150 acres were allotted to the Khodays 35 years back. Compensation was also paid to the farmers. But, Khodays did not pay and that’s it. For 35 years, the file wasn’t with us and nobody knew that that land belonged to the government,” he said.

“Recently, I called retired officers for a get-together and we started talking to them about lands that were allotted when they were in service. One by one, information tumbled out. We found out that of the 150 acres, 20 acres have been encroached upon, 10 acres have been given to a school playground and another 20 acres went for a KSRTC workshop. Now, 75 acres are remaining,” the minister said. “Like this,” Nirani said, “assets worth Rs 3,000 crore are lying dead.”