WB marks 2 lakh acres for industrialisation

Kolkata, Jul 14: The West Bengal government has so far allocated nearly two lakh acres of land for the purpose of industrialisation, state Land and Land Reforms Minister Abdul Rezzak Mollah informed the state assembly today.

Replying to a query of SUCI member Debaprasad Sarkar, Mr Mollah said during the current fiscal an amount of 43,180 acres of land had been earmarked for the same purpose.

He said of them while about 5000 acres of land had been earmarked for the proposed township at Dankuni in neighbouring Hoogly district, another about 3000 acres had been earmarked for the setting up of a small port at Kulti in South 24 Parganas and its adjoining Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Another about 1000 acres was also selected for handing over to the Tata Group for the small car manufacturing unit at Singur, while another about 2000 acres would be given for the two wheeler manufacturing units of the Salem group at Uluberia in Howrah district.

The government had also decided to set aside about 25,000 acres of land for the proposed chemical hub at Haldia, in East Midnapore district.

Replying to supplementary queries from Mr Sarkar and some other members, the minister said a meeting had been convened between the his ministry and the industry, finance on July 21 for preparing a collective action plan on how to hand over these land to the proposed investors.

Answering another question, he said though previously no compensation was paid in the event of acquisition of land by the government, but now following his personal initiative and in the wake of the amendment of the law, substantial amounts were being doled out to the owners of the land from whom it had been acquired.

He said besides the state government a number of nodal agencies, including the HUDCO, CMDA, KMDA, had been appointed for smooth and proper acquisition in a transparent manner.

UNI