Telangana eyes 1,300 acres of unused land lying with industries

HYDERABAD: With huge demand for land for setting up industrial parks, the state government has begun concentrating on resuming unutilized land from industries that were given land over the past few years.
The Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) has identified about 1,300 acres of unutilized or partially utilized land by various industries across the state.While some industry owners have surrendered the land without creating any problems, some managements resisted the resumption of land as they were in possession of it in prime locations in and around Hyderabad.
“Until now, 698 acres has been resumed from 205 industries and another 600 acres is being resumed from another 150 industries,” TSIIC managing director EV Narasimha Reddy told TOI on Friday.
Official sources said previous Congress government had allotted about 4,000 acres in the state, especially around Hyderabad for setting up Special Economic Zones and for setting up industries. But many of these industries failed to take off and used the land for other purposes. After slapping notices on such industries, the government repossessed 448 acres from 95 industries and another 250 acres allotted to Indutech SEZ was cancelled. However, this last parcel of land is under the control of Enforcement Directorate due to court cases.
Industries Minister K T Rama Rao recently announced in the assembly that the government had created a land bank of 1,45,682 acres, especially in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Region for the setting up of various industrial parks including Pharma City, National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ), Zaheerabad, Mega Textile Park at Warangal, Medical Devices Park and Women Entrepreneur Park near Sangareddy, Electronic Hardware Park at Maheshwaram, Furniture Park at Dandumalkapur near Choutuppal and International Leather Park near Janagaon. Apart from industrial parks, the government has proposed to set up new IT Parks at Miyapur, Budvel, Tellapur-Kaollur, Bachupally, Dindigal and Ameenpur.
“Of the identified land bank, acquisition process for many industrial parks has begun. For instance, 5,669 acres for Pharma City, 2,800 acres for NIMZ, Zaheerabad, 876 acres for Mega Textile Park are under the control of the government. The government can go ahead with the first phase of the parks,” a senior official of Industries department said.