With land acquisition for national manufacturing and investment zones (NMIZ) becoming a tall order for states, many of them have urged the commerce and industry ministry to ease land requirement norms for the same.
States like Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, among others, have urged the ministry to reduce the minimum land requirement of 5,000 hectare to 1,000 hectare as it would put pressure on agricultural land.
?Though the states are keen to have these manufacturing zones, land is becoming an issue because they have less and expensive land,? said a commerce ministry official.
In fact, last week Haryana government raised this issue with commerce minister Anand Sharma while the latter was on a visit to discuss industrial projects in Haryana and Punjab. ?We wrote to the ministry some time back saying it is difficult to divert too much agricultural land for NMIZs. Our position is similar to that of Punjab as we feel that 1,000 hectare is plentiful of land to attract investment,? said PK Chaudhery, chief secretary, Haryana government, adding that the entire industrial zone in Singapore is established on a small area and the government should follow that.
The state currently has one NMIZ – Manesar-Bawal Investment region – which is expected to see total infrastructure investments of over R71,000 crore and provide employment to over 28 lakh people in the next 30 years.
NMIZs ? which are a key component of the country?s National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) ? are mega industrial zones where the government is offering a host of incentives like exemption from capital gains tax and liberalised labour and environment norms to promote these zones.
Besides, the NMP proposes to create 100 million jobs by 2020. The government has been taking several steps to increase the share of the manufacturing sector in the GDP to at least 25% by 2020 from the present 16%.
However, despite the hassles, the government announced the ninth NMIZ, which is a third for Maharashtra, on Saturday.
?While something can be done about land issues in big states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, in smaller states it has become a sensitive and costly issue,? the official added, saying that Kerala too is interested in an NMIZ but may have similar problems.
The first phase of the NMIZ will be set up along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, which is expected to come on stream in the next few years.
The project is being executed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with an investment of over $90 billion.
Moreover, NMIZs are intended to be self-governing and autonomous industrial townships of at least 5,000 hectare which will enjoy single-window clearances and relaxations in labour and environmental clearances. The NMIZs will be managed by a SPV to be headed by a government official.
Not only land acquisition, but attracting investments in social infrastructure is also a hindrance in setting up NMIZs. ?It is possible to go into the hinterland where land is inexpensive but investment will come only if the social infrastructure is in place. Where this infrastructure is available, land is under pressure. Hence, we must go for NMIZs in smaller areas,? Chaudhery said.
