The royal families of Dubai and Thailand have shown interest in investing in Karnataka. They have proposed to set up a theme park spread over 20,000 acres in Kolar district.
“We have received a joint proposal from the royal families of both Dubai and Thailand for allotment of 20,000 acres of land in Kolar district. They want to develop a theme park with an integrated residential township, entertainment complexes and hotels among others for an investment of '20,000 crore. The state government has had first round of talks with their representatives and no decision has been taken in this regard yet,” Murugesh R Nirani said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function to launch new products of Corporation Bank, here today, Nirani said the government has deferred taking any decision on the investment proposal from these investors. The government has extended an invitation to the scions of Dubai royal family for talks and they were yet to accept the government invitation for further talks in this regard, he said.
He said the government has issued final notification for acquisition of 80,000 acres in the state for allotment to industrial projects cleared during the recently held global investors meet.The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board has also issued preliminary notification for acquisition of another 30,000 acres, he said.
Commenting on the protests from farmers in Bellary, Haveri and Bijapur districts for acquisition of land for steel projects of ArcelorMittal and Tata Metaliks, and power project proposed by National Thermal Power Corporation Limited in Bijapur, Nirani said, the government will not acquire land forcibly from any farmer.
“We will not force farmers to part with their land if more than 80 per cent of the farmers in any notified project area refuse to sell their land. In most of the cases, farmers are happy to give away their land. The government has offered to pay double the cost of prevailing land price locally,” he said.
Nirani said the government was hopeful of developing at least 6,000 Mw of power projects along the two natural gas pipelines under development in the state. While Gas Authority of India Limited is laying an 800 km pipeline from Dabhol to Bidadi another pipeline is being laid by Reliance from Chennai to Mangalore via Bangalore.
