Bengal eases norms for setting up industrial parks, brick kilns

Industries like cold storage, poultry, fish farming, warehousing among others will now be included in industrial parks.

To boost industrialisation, the West Bengal Cabinet on Monday gave its nod to allow private players to set up industrial parks on five acres of land instead of the minimum requirement of 20 acres to develop such facilities. The TMC government also relaxed norms to legalise illegal brick kilns in the state.

Speaking to mediapersons after the Cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi said: “In the 2020-21 budget, the government has set a target to set up 100 industrial parks across the state. To fulfil the target, it was necessary to change the existing framework of the industrial parks. We are hoping that after these changes, the demand to build industrial parks will increase.”

“The relaxation will encourage small and medium enterprises as the state government has also decided to pay incentives to private players for setting up such parks… Earlier, the state government used to give incentives to the private players only after completion of the project. Today, the Cabinet decided that the incentive allowance should be given to the private players at the rate of 20, 30 and 50 per cent in three stages of the project,” he said, adding that industries like cold storage, poultry, fish farming, warehousing among others will now be included 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,” he added.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to legalise brick kilns that dig up to 1.5 metres from the surface by taking them out of the non-mining industry category. As a result, such brickfields would not require clearance from the state environment department anymore.

“Many brick kilns in the state did not get environment certificates because they do not have the expertise to fulfil the condition of the environment department. They needed environmental clearance because they were treated as mining industry till date. Today, the Cabinet took a policy decision of not treating brick kilns that dig only 1.5 metres from the surface of the Earth as the mining industry,” the chief secretary said, adding that there are 5,635 registered brickfields in the state.

To boost the tourism industry, the Cabinet gave its approval to a scheme to enhance the skills of entrepreneurs associated with tourism.

“The Cabinet has given its approval for a scheme for recognition of tourism service providers of West Bengal under which the tour operators will be identified and categorised. Their skill will be developed through ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ and they will be given certificates,” the chief secretary said.

The ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ project aims at creating a pool of skilled candidates who are industry-ready.

With PTI Inputs

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