State to offer government land to private developers

The state government will be soon offering its land to private developers so that they can come and develop infrastructure for industrial parks in the state.

“The district magistrates were asked to identify land parcels so that developers can be invited to set up industrial parks and they have already identified 45 such lands mostly 5-8 acres. This land will be given to West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation Ltd (WBSIDCL) so that they can invite applications through their portal and newspaper advertisements for an industrial park,” Special Secretary of MSME & Textiles department Meghnad De said at an event titled “Empowering MSME’s of West Bengal” hosted by WBSIDCL in collaboration with Indian Chamber of Commerce.

The state government has plans to provide the same benefits as in the existing scheme for SAIP (Scheme for Approved Industrial Parks) that encourage the private sector to set up industrial parks on their land and offer MSME to set up units.

De urged interested investors to keep a watch on the WBSIDCL portal so that they can take advantage of the scheme. The state government has already done a pilot project in this regard at Dabgram, Jalpaiguri.

In the SAIP project, investors setting up private industrial parks can get 100 per cent reimbursement of stamp duty, get a power substation installed free of cost and have a road built to connect with the nearest major road.

Previously 60 per cent of the industrial park needed to be dedicated to manufacturing but now poultry, fishery, cold storage, warehouse, and logistics are also allowed.

Presently, there are 69 parks under WBSIDCL of which 54 are already functional and 15 are coming soon. More than 3,000 units are running in these parks.

Currently, 90 lakh MSMEs in Bengal employ over 1.36 crore people.

WBSIDCL on Wednesday signed an MoU with the State Bank of India so that all payments related to setting up MSME units can be done in digital mode as well as ensuring seamless reconciliation. A new portal to give effect to such a service will be soon launched by WBSIDCL.

Mosaraf Hussen, vice chairman and Nikhil Nirmal, managing director of WBSIDCL were present at the event held at Biswa Bangla

Mela Prangan.