MP comes close to losing Greemach project

Whatever MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan may say on extending support to investors, the state is likely to miss a major investment opportunity due to bureaucratic tangles and reported pressure from the land mafia.

A district administration decision to reportedly earmark a huge land area of nearly 400 acres near Bhopal airport for the Indian Institute of Science may force Bombay-based Greemach to pull out of its proposed air-cargo complex and maintenance base project at Bhopal airport.

The company has proposed to invest Rs 1,000 crore for creating the facility similar to the one aviation major Boeing is creating in Nagpur.

Although Greemach Infrastructure Equipment & Projects Ltd has not been told formally by the state government as to whether land will be dearer, a well-placed senior government official told Business Standard: "The district collector has asked for Rs 33 crore (10 per cent of the total cost) as advance of the total cost of the land, which is 324 acres. Thus, the government is charging more than Rs 1 crore per acre for industries."

Speaking to Business Standard, a top company executive said: "At the moment we cannot comment but if land prices are more than Rs 25 lakh per acre, the project will not be viable."

The department of industry, the Trade and Facilitation Corporation, and the district collector's office are silent on the matter.

The Madhya Pradesh Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam, a subsidiary of the State Industrial Development Corporation, wanted the land area to be transferred to it.

"We do not have any idea about the collector's communication but we will float the bid once the land is transferred to us. We have learnt that the land is going to be given to the Indian Institute of Sciences. But we wanted the land to be utilised for the air-cargo complex since it is in the vicinity of the airport," Praveen Garg, managing director of MP State Industrial development Corporation, said. The district collector is out of the state.

The state government has made no effort to control land prices and rates in the airport locality have doubled from Rs 100 per sq foot to Rs 2,000 per sq foot.

Real estate players are reserving chunks of land to prevent immediate big investors in the area so that they can sell it at exorbitant prices later.

The Indian army also holds a huge land area near the airport, which is yet to be transferred to the state government for airport expansion.