KOLKATA: Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi on Monday directed the concerned officials to undertake a survey of unused lands and issue showcause notices within 15 days to those who have taken land for the industry but has left them unutilised for long.
Dwivedi held a meeting at Nabanna to review the proposed 500 km Economic and Industrial Corridor project which is being developed from the upcoming port region of Tajpur in East Midnapore to Purulia – right on the state’s border with Jharkhand.
Sources in Nabanna said that a private agency will be roped in for the survey.
The government has decided that it would take back such unused lands and will provide land pattas or promote the Matir Shristi project that has been conceived to commercially exploit fallow land through horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry for additional income generation of the farmers and economic upliftment of the rural people through community participation along with environmental benefits, mainly in the dry regions.
Dwivedi also directed for an extension of SAIP (Scheme for Approved Industrial Parks) benefits to all projects taken up under the corridor and create a single window team for handling such projects under the Silpa Sathi portal.
The Principal Secretary of Urban Development department, secretary of Panchayats and Rural Development, senior officials from Industry and Commerce department, including senior officials of WBIDC attended the meeting. District Magistrates of Howrah, East and West Burdwan, East and West Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and Hooghly attended virtually. WBIDC is the nodal agency for the development of the corridor.
The state government has plans to promote clusters along the corridor that will cater to sectors like cement, edible oil, steel and iron-ore making, among others.
The corridor will also leverage the Tajpur deep sea port’s connectivity with the rest of Bengal in terms of supplies and facilitate “faster movement of goods”. The Bengal government has already handed over the Letter of Intent (LOI) for setting up a greenfield deep sea port at Tajpur to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones (APSEZ), the largest private port operator.