15,000 acres of land on offer at ‘Invest Karnataka’ meet

The Karnataka government has created a land bank of 15,000 acres to be offered at the forthcoming ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’ meet.

“Over 15,000 acres of government land has been transferred to KIADB by the revenue department free of cost and this is expected to open a new chapter in the history of industrialisation of Karnataka,” K Ratna Prabha, Karnataka Additional Chief Secretary Department of Commerce and Industries, told Business Line .

The State government was able to lure HAL to set up a helicopter manufacturing plant in Tumkuru by allotting 610 acres at concessional rate of ₹1 lakh an acre.

“The government is now open to the idea of inviting manufacturing companies which can provide large-scale employment and be able to build their facilities in a short time,” said a senior official of the revenue department.

Addressing a government-industry interaction, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “In the last two years, we have approved more than 450 projects, bringing in investments of around ₹1.21 lakh crore and generating 2.44 lakh jobs but much more needs to be done.”

“In the last one year, many investments have come to the State. Shell, Tata Power, Bosch, Scania and others have made investments and capacity expansions. All of them are interested in ‘Make in Karnataka’ – for India and for the world,” he added.

“Now Asian Paints is putting up the world’s largest paint plant in Mysore, GSK is starting a manufacturing unit, Toyota has decided to make in Karnataka. Himmatsingka is expanding its operations in Hassan,” he added.

Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries RV Deshpande said on the occasion that infrastructure had not kept pace with the development in the State.

“The government is concerned about the situation and we are working to deal with it. The Chief Minister has been holding consultations with all stakeholders on finding ways to solve the problem,” he said.