PANAJI: The Goa Industrial Development Corporation on Monday allotted land to four companies for expansion at the board meeting after some industries surrendered unutilised land back to the IDC.
Addressing a press conference after the board meeting, GIDC chairman, Mr Chandrakant Kavlekar said that the corporation has allotted 35,000 square meters of land to Bosch India Ltd after Putzmenter surrendered the land to IDC. The company had taken one lakh square metres of land three years back of which nearly 50 per cent was not being utilised.
Mr Kavlekar said that Bosch which was planning expansion will invest ` 38.20 crore in the packaging unit for pharma companies generating employment for 276 people.
Similarly, he said 16,000 square meters was surrendered by Surana at Pilerne industrial estate with an investment of ` 80 crore and generating employment for 70 people. He said that the land has been leased out at a fresh rate of Rs 500 per square meter as against the old rate of ` 150. He said that Bosch India Ltd has been charged at ` 750 per square metre at the Verna industrial estate.
The GIDC chairman said that expansion permissions were also given to Siemens gas insulated sub-station and control relay panel with an investment of ` 88.28 crore along with Teracom Ltd which manufactures all types of power cables have also been given expansion permissions. He said that Teracom had already got the required permissions from the high power co-ordination committee for expansion and required permission from IDC.
Further Mr Kavlekar said that Dazzler Confectionary Company Ltd, manufacturing hard candy lollipops has also been granted three-year lease to operate at a sub-leased premises at Verna before shifting to its new premises with an investment of ` 42.11 crore and generating employment for 85 persons.
The chairman said that the GIDC has also got administrative approval of ` 4.26 crore to upgrade the infrastructure in all the 22 existing industrial estates with ` 1.5 crore being invested at Kundaim industrial estate alone. He said that the board deferred its decision on extension of the one time settlement package for the next board meeting.
The managing director, Mr A D Naik said that an amount of ` 7.21 crore is outstanding and that the IDC has recovered ` 1.76 crore from 14 units from March 2010.
Replying to a query on SEZs, he said that the SEZ promoters have placed a demand for compensation of over ` 1500 crore as damages even as the GIDC has recovered just around ` 45-50 crore from the SEZ land. He said that the final arguments on the SEZ issue have been completed and they are pending court’s verdict. He said that 32,000 square meters is in the possession of the SEZ promoters including the four
non-notified SEZ.
Mr Kavlekar said that there are over 250 applications pending before the IDC and that the corporation has issued notices to over 60 units to surrender unutilised land back to them. He said that the pending applications cannot be finalised as the regional plan 2021 has not been finalised by the town and country planning department.
Replying to a question on employment guarantee, Mr Naik said even though there is no mechanism to monitor if Goans are getting jobs in the industrial estate, the companies have to register with the employment and labour department and submit all details to meet the Goa Industrial Policy which mandates that 80 per cent of the jobs be given to Goans. He however admitted that steel industries etc have over 80 per cent of non-Goans employed.
