KIADB May Acquire 3K Acres for MBIC Project.

Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) is mulling over acquiring 3,000 acres of land near Belur Industrial Estate near Dharwad to attract investments under the central government's Mumbai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (MBIC) project.

The centre hopes to generate an investment of Rs. 3 lakh crore from this project that passes through cities like Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Belagavi, Dharwad, Davangere, Haveri, Chitradurga and Tumkur. Besides, four new cities are also being planned along the corridor to boost manufacturing activities.

Sensing a huge opportunity in the project to get big investments that can erase the backwardness tag from North Karnataka region to some extent, the state government has decided to pitch for investments.

But before that, it wants to create a land bank to be able to offer to industries as and when required.

According to sources, the KIADB has already identified around 3,000 acres near Durgadakere near Singanalli village situated north of Beluar Industrial Estate and waiting for a green signal from the government to start the process of acquisition.

This apart, the KIADB is in the possession of around 980 acres of land in the vicinity of the identified land. 'In all, it will be 4,000 acres which can be showcased before the Centre to stake the state’s claim for investments as and when the situation comes to that stage,' said a KIADB official.

However, he added that the matter was still in a preliminary stage and nothing concrete could be said now. The state has lost several big ticket investment proposals in the past due to the absence of readily available land.

In order to overcome this, the state government is said to have decided to keep a land bank ready.

Industrialists of the region believe that the Hubballi-Dharwad twin cities are strategically placed to attract investments under the MBIC projects.

As it is, the Belur Industrial Estate is very well developed and houses several industries. This apart, Tata Motors has a big production unit here and it wants to expand it further.



THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS