Industrial sites are increasingly being converted for non-industrial purposes in Mysore even as potential entrepreneurs find it difficult to procure land for establishing manufacturing units.
While the original allottee may have acquired the land from the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) many years ago, it would have been sold to a third party at an exorbitant rate as a result of which speculative investment in industrial sites is on the rise in the city.
Suresh Kumar Jain of the Mysore Industries Association told The Hindu that nearly 17 acres of land procured at the rate of Rs. 1 lakh an acre for establishing a food park had changed hands thrice and was now reckoned to be prime real estate for a housing project. “Most of the investors would have purchased land from the KIADB at prevailing rates four or five years ago but are now ready to sell them at market price after effecting land-use conversion provisions and will thus reap a neat profit,” Mr. Jain said. When contacted, KIADB Development Officer for Mysore Shivakumar said that once the sale deed was issued, the board had little control over the future ownership or transaction pertaining to that land. He said there could be many reasons for the inability of entrepreneurs and investors to establish a unit, including a change in their fortunes or a change in plan.
Mr. Jain pointed out that the Government approved 13 Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects under the State-level Single Window Clearance Committee (SLWCC) between 2001-02 and February 2007. But out of the nearly 380 acres of land that was allotted to the potential investors, not a single project has materialised till date. The non-flow of capital investment is not confined to Mysore alone. In neighbouring Nanjangud taluk, about 250 acres of land acquired from farmers to establish a textile park has no takers. Though the Government was confident that a textile park would help create jobs and give a fillip to industrial activity in the region, not a single unit has been established. The MIA pointed out that the change of land-use pattern was the maximum in Mysore, where educational institutions, including first grade colleges and management institutions, have sprung up, in Metagalli industrial suburb. Private apartments and residential zones have sprung up in Visvesvaranagar Industrial Area.
