Bengal relaxes rules for industrial parks for private players
To achieve the target of 100 industrial parks, state government relaxes rules for private players; brick kilns no longer classified as mines
In a bid to increase industrialisation in the state, the Bengal government took taken some important decisions at its recent cabinet meeting, chaired by the chief minister.
The government has decided to let private companies set up their facilities on five acres of land, instead of the earlier 20 acres. Norms to legalise illegal brick kilns have also been relaxed.
The state government had set a target of setting up 100 industrial parks across the state in the present financial year’s budget, and to achieve this ambitious target, reforms need to be made. The reduction of the minimum requirement for private industrial parks from 20 to 5 acres is likely to prove to be a major catalyst for achieving the target.
Already the portal of the scheme for single-window clearance of industrial projects, Silpa Sathi, a flagship scheme of the Trinamool Congress government, is up and running.
The relaxation in acreage will be more helpful to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) who do not have huge capital to invest, and who have been kept specially in mind while relaxing the rule.
Unlike earlier, when the government gave incentives to private players after the completion of their projects, the incentives will now be given in three stages: after the completion of 20 per cent, 30 per cent and 50 per cent of any project.
Another decision taken at the cabinet meeting was to allow industries like cold storage, poultry, fish farming and warehousing, among others, to set up shop in industrial parks. A one-stop-shop system has also been introduced to facilitate the process of obtaining clearance from various departments, including fire and environment.
Brick kilns, since they dig only up to 1.5 metres below the surface, have been taken out of the category of non-mining industry. Therefore, brickfields would not require clearance from the state Environment Department anymore. There are 5,635 registered brickfields in the state.
