Punjab okays RIL's rural hubs project

First five hubs to be operational by October this year

The agricultural hub model of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd will soon be a reality in Punjab.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today announced that the Cabinet Committe had cleared the project and the first five rural hubs would be operational by October 2006.

Singh clarified that the land would not be acquired from the farmers.

"The company will get only the Shyamlat land (the common village land available with the panchayats). The company will get the land on lease from panchayats at Rs 16,000 per acre, subject to a revision of 10 per cent every five years".

Singh said that the 292 acres of land acquired by the PSIEC (Punjab Small Scale Industries Exports Corporation) at six locations (Malout, Abohar, Mansa, Muktsar, Tanda and Goindwal) would be offered to the company at a price decided by the Punjab and Haryana High Court as the issue is pending in the court.

PSIEC would retain 10 per cent of the land at each site for its own use.

"Although the West Bengal government offered land for a similar project to RIL for free, we did not follow suit," the chief minister said.

According to Singh, RIL will invest Rs 500 crore till October and the total cost of the the project will be Rs 5,000 crore. Of the 12,700 villages in Punjab, 12,400 villages would be covered by Reliance' rural hubs model, he added..

Reliance has decided to set up 52 major and 250 minor hubs to cater to the direct and indirect needs of the farmers. Insurance and banking for the farmers, milk collection, primary education and entertainment would be the salient features of the project.

The controversial 20 acre land at Mohali, owned by the Punjab Mandi Board, will be allotted to the bidders through the Swiss channel.

"All the corporate players coming up with agriculture and food processing projects in Punjab propose to incorporate drip irrigation that would help maintain the water table in the state," he said.

Bharti, Reliance and Punjab Agro Industries Corp would refrain from using ground water as the water table in the state had already decreased to the alarming levels due to the over utilisation of water pumps, he said.

33 retail super markets would be rolled out in Punjab by RIL and about 30,000 jobs would be created on the completion of the project, Singh said.