Vijay Johar bends down, takes a pinch of dust from the ground to put on his forehead. After all, the 100-square metre plot he is standing on is the site for his printing press and holds the key to his future.
Johar is one of the nearly 8,000 unit owners who are moving into the Shyama Prasad Mookherji Industrial Estate at Bawana on the northwest edge of Delhi.
Bawana is one of the areas to which 16,000 of the nearly 100,000 industrial units in the Capital are to be relocated.
The Supreme Court ordered all units in non-conforming (residential) areas in the Capital to shift out by December 31, 2002.
In November 2000, the Delhi government was given four weeks to close all polluting units.
That sparked violent unrest. Later, the court allowed the units to reopen, provided the owners gave affidavits that their units would not pollute.
On visiting his site after 18 months, Johar is amazed at the pace of work, which has changed the face of the 1,900-acre area.
"When I came here for the first time, there was absolutely nothing on the ground. Leave alone reaching my plot, I did not even have a vague idea where my sector would be," says the owner of I-110 plot.
In the last two years, acres of agricultural land have been transformed into a modern industrial park with wide roads, storm water drains, sewage lines and neat arrays of electric poles, all in pairs for transformers to be mounted on to them.
"I have never seen anything like this before. Even the minute details have been taken care of. There are parks in each cluster, parking space for cars and heavy vehicles for every few plots and cycle stands in front of each plot. This is so different than the dingy one-room from where I run my printing press at present," says Johar.
Bharat Bhushan weighs in: "The place has come up well. Now it is for the government to provide basic amenities like transport and housing."
Bhushan owns a rubber parts factory in central Delhis Anand Parwat area and has to shift his unit before December 31.
Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation (DSIDC) officials say the park is ready and awaiting allottees.
Of the 1,200 plot owners who have taken possession, only a score have started building their factories.
To encourage the owners to take possession and begin construction, DSIDC takes the allottees on a guided tour of the area.
They are picked up from a central place and taken to the site. Here, senior officials take note of their concerns and demands before they are dropped back.
"We took a cue from site visits conducted by private real estate developers. We take the allottees around the park and to their plot. These people become our goodwill ambassadors and through them we want to dispel the notion that nothing is happening on the ground here and the place is still a jungle," says site superintending engineer V Kumar.
Kartar Singh, who is planning to move his plastics goods unit from Nizamuddin in central Delhi, complains of delays in getting possession of the plot despite having made the full payment of Rs 8,40,000 for his 200-sq metre plot at the rate of Rs 4,200 per sq metre.
But Singh is quick to add after coming to the site, hes aware that work is not going on at a "sarkari" pace.
"All my doubts were clarified to my satisfaction. The 400 kv Bawana sub-station is functional, roads have been laid and public transport, slightly erratic now, is expected to become regular soon," he says.
Adds Raminder Singh, his neighbour, who is planning to take up a plot here: "The pioneers always have to face some teething troubles. If we move in here right away, we are bound to face some difficulty. But all that will be sorted out as people move in."
Kumar, the site engineer, says 10 mw of power is available and DSIDC can provide a temporary connection on demand.
Water is being provided from five tube-wells, a Delhi Jal Board pipeline is expected to be commissioned soon.
Tenders for a common effluent treatment plant are to be awarded this month. The site will also have an Employee State Insurance (ESI) hospital, low-cost residential sectors and a new road linking it to the Rohtak highway.
Nevertheless, setting up shop at the new site is just half the problem. The first batch of factory owners will also have to contend with a shortage of labour, with being located far away from the markets and with higher transport costs, both for them and for their products and raw materials.
Johar says, he will have to maintain two establishments, one at his old place in Daryaganj for marketing operations and the factory for executing orders.
His wife is planning to become his marketing agent, sitting at home in Karol Bagh.
Some of these small unit owners are also confronted with another problem: selling their existing sites, although most of their residences doubled up as factories. Kartar Singh is looking for a buyer for his unit, but restrictions on the land use of the site are making it tough for him to strike a good deal. Clearly then, the Supreme Courts order will cost these businessmen quiet a tidy packet, even if it will help reduce pollution in the nations capital.
