JV land policy talks today

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State Group Of Ministers To Fix Land Price For Companies
Debashis Konar TNN

Kolkata: The Group of Ministers (GoM) under chief minister Mamata Banerjee will meet on Saturday morning to firm up the state government’s policy on publicprivate partnership (PPP) projects. The GoM plans to fix land price that the government may offer to private parties that have evinced interest in several sectors from housing to IT. The purpose is to bring in equity capital, said an official.
The Mamata Banerjee government has plans to take the PPP route for upgrading the state’s poor infrastructure. For the infrastructure sector, the state is also considering the probability of providing annuity on build operate and transfer (BOT) basis. Special tax holidays are also being considered for the JV partners in remote districts.
The state has in fact been categorized for this purpose into A, B, C and D, depending on the proximity to Kolkata, zone being the core Kolkata area. The GoM will also take stock of the joint venture projects signed during the Left Front regime. Many such projects have come under scanner because they didn’t start the project despite getting land at “throw away” prices. The allegation holds true for the housing sector.
The government is now tracking the quantum of land that was handed over to the JV partners. A senior official said that many of these companies only utilized a part of the land in the JVs, while the rest have either resold it or are still holding the land.
In order to make a transparent policy on providing land to JV partners, the state will now finalise how land can be handed over to the . Though chief minister Mamata Banerjee had made it clear that her government was against any type of land acquisition, but it wants to clearly earmark the process of land transfer to the JV partners. The state government has already relaxed section 14 Y of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act to convert the land use pattern. According to it, if a piece of agricultural land gives low returns, it can be converted for commercial use.
However, the GoM’s focus will be on creating employment opportunities among the local population. The government also wants to set targets for tourism projects coming up in the state.
Attempts are on to rope in investors for the proposed medical colleges. In the power sector too, the state is looking for partners.
An industrialist who is a JV partner, however, said: “Land should be provided at a realistic price. It should be close to the market rate.”