Now, micro, small and medium industries can book land online

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-government will make the process of allotting land to entrepreneurs for micro, small and medium scale industries online from November first week. This is another major step taken by the state government in making doing business easily in Bengal.

According to a state government official, a software has been developed under the "Ease of Doing Business" project to help entrepreneurs apply to get land to set up industries and now the facility is also going to be extended for those who want to set up micro, small and medium scale units in the industrial parks under the West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC).

Usually, an entrepreneur interested in setting up micro, small and medium scale needs to visit the office of WBSIDC to submit an application to get land. But with the introduction of the online system of processing the application, an entrepreneur will neither have to visit the office of the Corporation to submit applications nor to collect the certificate of allotment after the entire procedure.

Explaining the process, the officer said one just needs to log into landwbsidcl.silpasathi.in.

An applicant can complete the task of giving particulars of the project along with the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and its financial viability in a prescribed format to the corporation online itself. The data related to available land in all the 40 industrial parks and estates of the corporation across the state can also be accessed online so that one can choose a plot as per his requirement.

After going through the details, the entrepreneur will have to visit the office of the corporation only one single time for a discussion over the project. Once the allotment of land on a long-term lease is approved, which usually takes place within 60 days of the application, the entrepreneur will get the certificate of allotment. Subsequently, the entrepreneur can make payment using debit or credit cards or through net banking.

At present, there are 40 industrial parks and estates under WBSIDC on 697 acre of land and it includes three upcoming ones at Khasjungle in West Midnapore, Dabgram in Jalpaiguri and Malda Silk Park. Industrial parks at Ambari Falakata in Jalpaiguri on 126 acre and Rejinagar in Murshidabad on 86 acre of land have come up a few years ago.

There is 471 acre of vacant land in the industrial parks and it will be allotted to entrepreneurs interested in setting up micro, small and medium scale units. Out of the 471 acre vacant lands, maximum of it is in the two new ones at Ambari Falakata and

Rejinagar and the three upcoming industrial parks at Khasjungle, Dabgram and Malda. There are only a few plots vacant in each of the remaining 35 industrial parks where 226 acre of land have already been allotted and the micro,

small and medium scale industries have flourished in the past six years.