State to allot 100 acres for construction material park

Kolkata: Encouraged by the sales in affordable housing in Bengal, despite a slowdown in the country, state Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra said on Friday that the government is ready to allocate 100 acres at Panagarh in West Burdwan for setting up an exclusive park for construction materials.

"The rest of India has witnessed a slowdown in real estate sector, but low-cost housing for the past few years in Bengal has picked up. Real estate developers have hardly witnessed any default, vacancy rate in the malls are also a nominal 3.7 percent. However, still we have to import some 25 important components of building materials from other places. The time has come for us to have facilities so that every single building material is made in Bengal itself. We are ready to allocate 100 acres at Panagarh, which is red certified. This will create employment opportunities for more people," Mitra said addressing a conference on 'Value Chain Development of Construction and Infrastructure Sector' organized by CII.

The minister further informed that if the demand is higher then another 100 acres land can also be offered.

It may be mentioned that 35 odd building materials are manufactured in Bengal itself while around 25 materials need to be imported from other states. Mitra reiterated that Supreme Court had to intervene in North India with home buyers being cheated by builders but Bengal has been an exception.

"There was a time when real estate developed in south, central and north Kolkata but now interestingly west Kolkata is also picking up," said Mitra on the basis of two important studies carried out in this regard. The minister urged CII to make an application to West Bengal Industry Development Corporation (WBIDC) which owns the park to be a partner in promoting and marketing this proposed park.

The state government is ready to partner CII to host roadshows for promotion of the park. The existing industrial park at Panagarh already has an investment of Rs 770 crore and Emami has already come up with its cement plant there.

The minister also stressed upon scaling up the existing facilities at Panagarh industrial park to woo investors.