Cabinet approves setting up industrial park at Salboni
Kolkata: The state Cabinet on Thursday approved the setting up of an industrial park at Salboni in West Midnapore at the same premises where JSW Bengal Steel, an unlisted subsidiary of JSW Steel, has been holding the lease of 4,102 odd acres of land for more than a decade.
“JSW Bengal Steel had taken 4102-acre land in Salboni on lease a long time back, a portion of which has been utilised. The rest of the land covering 1979 acres and commercial land of 132 acres will be used for setting up of an industrial park,” state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
According to sources, the Cabinet has approved allowing conversion of the entire leasehold land to freehold.
JSW Group, led by Sajjan Jindal has decided to develop an industrial park at Salboni in Bengal to attract domestic and international investors and various industries.
Earlier this year, the JSW Group had written to the state expressing its desire to give up land after retaining a part for the existing cement manufacturing unit and future expansion. But recently it had made it clear that it will be holding on to the plot, which was leased out to the private group to set up an integrated steel and power plant in 2008 by the erstwhile Left Front government.
According to sources, some Bengal-based industries have already evinced interest in a slice of the land identified for the industrial park. Sourav Ganguly has already announced the setting up of a steel factory at Salboni.
The 28-square-kilometre area of land at Salboni is protected by a 34-kilometre-long wall and hence free from encumbrance or encroachment.
About 850 acres have been utilised for a cement grinding unit, power plant and railway siding among others. There is a 100-acre plot carved out for farming apart from a small township for the employees of the cement unit.
