Companies paid Rs 103.77 crore as land price.
Orissa which has earned the tag of an investors’ paradise, attracting investments across sectors to the tune of over Rs 6 lakh crore in the past few years, has allotted 7428.30 acres of land to as many as 64 industries during 2005-2010.
These industries have cumulatively paid Rs 103.77 crore to the state government. Of the total of 7428.30 acres of land allotted to these industries by the state government owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), 7138.2 acres constitute non-forest land with the remaining 290.10 acres being government forest land.
While the industries have paid Rs 98.84 crore towards non-forest land, they have forked out Rs 49.31 crore for government owned forest land in the said period. The maximum land (1657.71 acres) has been allotted in Angul district.
Other districts where land has been allotted by Idco for industrial use are Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Koraput, Rayagada, Keonjhar, Jharsuguda and Sundergarh.
The maximum land allocation for any single industrial project in the past five years has been done in favour of Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL). The company has been allotted 1181.43 acres of non-forest government land at Chhendipada tehsil in Angul district a a cost of Rs 16.41 crore for its integrated steel and power complex.
Among the other mega projects, Posco India has so far been alloted 578.53 acres of non-forest government land at Kujang in Jagatsinghpur for its proposed 12 million tonne per annum greenfield steel plant. The South Korean steel major has paid Rs 1.92 crore as land acquisition cost.
Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) has been alloted 157.05 acres of non-forest government land at Burkhamunda near Jharsuguda for its aluminium smelter plant. VAL has deposited Rs 5.83 crore for land acquisition.
Aditya Aluminium Ltd, a division of Hindalco Industries Ltd, was given 702.56 acres of non-forest government land at Rengali near Sambalpur and has paid Rs 11.31 crore as land cost.
Similarly, Idco has allotted 476.15 acres of non-forest land to Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd at Hemgir in Sundergarh for the coal block.
Besides allotment of land to the industries, the diversion plan for 1418.58 hectares (3505.26 acres) of forest land for six industries has been approved and these industries have paid Rs 119.58 crore towards the forest diversion plan. Till now, compensatory afforestation has been taken up in 69.767 hectares (172.37 acres) of land.
