 "Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party")
Uttar Pradesh is all set to replicate the Gujarat model in allowing setting up of private industrial estates in the state.
The Akhilesh Yadav government is giving final shape to the policy, which would facilitate setting up of private industrial estates spanning between 25 and 100 acres on notified land.
UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) Managing Director Manoj Singh told Business Standard the policy was being finalised and would soon be placed before the state Cabinet for approval.
UPSIDC is the government agency designated for planned industrial growth in the state.
He said large private industrial estates were quite popular in Gujarat and informed UPSIDC had already received four to five applications when the proposal was passed in its Board.
The state is also mulling another policy to convert industrial plots under leasehold to freehold for units running for at least 30 years. This has been a long pending demand of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in UP. The leased plot holders could thus become the owners of the plots after paying the applicable charges.
UPSIDC now commands arguably the largest notified land bank in India following its notification of nearly 174,000 acres across 75 districts in UP. This is in addition to the almost 45,000 acres of its existing land bank.
“The notified land would serve as future land bank for development under both public and private sectors,” Singh said.
Under the proposed Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), the mega Rs 81,000-crore ambitious pan-India project aimed at radically reforming domestic cargo movement, UPSIDC is gearing up to play a major role.
EDFC has been proposed on the lines of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) falling on Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC).
The proposed alignment of 1,840 km EDFC spans Punjab, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. UP is the biggest beneficiary of the EDFC project, grabbing a share of 57 per cent, corresponding to nearly 1,049 km passing through the state.
In UP, about 40 stations are proposed on this freight corridor, crisscrossing 18 districts. The land falling within the 5 km-radius of the EDFC would fall under the ambit of EDFC and subsequently notified for development.
In all, seven investment and industrial zones spread over 25,000 hectare along the EDFC have been proposed for development in UP. Of these, two would be developed as national investment and manufacturing zones (NIMZs), while the remaining five would come up as industrial zones (IZ) along the UP section of the Corridor.
The proposed two NIMZs include Auraiya NIMZ (6,043 hectares) and Jhansi NMIZ (5,567 hectare).
While, the proposed IZs include Pashchimanchal IZ (2,000 hectare), Braj IZ (2,000 hectare), Kanpur Logistics hub (6,000 hectare), Allahabad-Naini-Bara IZ (3,000 hectares) and Mughal Sarai-Varansai-Mirzapur IZ (3,000 hectare).
The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is estimated to complete the entire EDFC and Western DFC by 2019. It would start to commission in phases from 2018.
The movement of cargo between Delhi and Mumbai takes two to three days, which after the operation of the proposed DFC would incur less than a day. DFC is also projected to help improve the share of railways vis-à-vis road transport and improve operational efficiency by cutting costs and increasing load capacity without compromising on speed and safety.
