Karnataka - Mysore   

Mysore has no more land for industries

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Chock-a-block: No fresh allotments have been made in the saturated Mysore Industrial Area in two years.

MYSORE: Investors keen to establish manufacturing units in Mysore may find themselves scouting for locations outside the existing industrial area because of lack of space.

The horizontal expansion of the city, coupled with real-estate sharks gobbling vast acres of land for speculative investment, has made it difficult to allot sites near the city, while the existing industrial estate in Hootagalli, Metagalli and Coorgalli is saturated and no fresh allotments have been made in the past two years.

“The Government convenes meetings for global investors and agrees to allot land in principle, but the fact of the matter is that there is no land to be allotted as new industrial sites,” according to Mysore Industries Association (MIA) secretary Suresh Kumar Jain.

Mr. Jain told The Hindu that even local investors and entrepreneurs were finding it difficult to get land sanctioned for establishing small-scale industries. Yet the Government was promising large chunks of land during the global investors’ meeting. “When there is no land for local investors who have been waiting for many years for allotment of sites, how can new investors hope to secure land,” he asked.

Nearly 600 entrepreneurs and potential investors applied for sites through the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), in 2006, of whom 350 were short-listed. Of these, only 80 have managed to secure land so far. The rest are still waiting for new land to be identified. The allotment was made through the District Industries Centre (DIC). In view of the scarcity of land, authorities identified nearly 5,000 acres of land along the H.D. Kote road and a joint inspection was conducted by members of the MIA, the DIC and the KIADB. “We have ensured that the land identified for industries is dry land. We do not want to take prime agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes,” Mr. Jain said.

The land is located about 25 km to 30 km from Mysore, off the Mysore-H.D. Kote road, near Naguvinahalli. However, Mr. Jain said that the acquisition process will take time. “Till now, only the land has been inspected. The procedure is lengthy,” he said.

Hence, the next best alternative, after Mysore, is reckoned to be the Nanjangud Industrial Area. Almost 250 acres of land has been acquired for establishing a textile park near Kadakola, which has now been put under the general category and is up for allotment.

The KIADB has also identified land around Nanjangud for acquisition, but has come under flak for acquiring prime agricultural land, including tracts irrigated by the Varuna canal. The move for acquisition has triggered a wave of protests led by the Bhoomitaayi Horata Samithi and the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS). But, a few individuals owning large tracts of agricultural land have already sold their holdings much to the chagrin of the KRRS and farmers.

The growing pressure on land for industries and other projects such as the airport has resulted in a drastic decline in the area under cultivation in Mysore taluk, according to sources in the Department of Agriculture. The increase in cost of agricultural production and decline in agricultural income has led to a shift in the occupation profile in Mysore taluk as many farmers have quit agriculture altogether, they said.

The new land acquisition process to be set off by the KIADB on the Mysore-H.D. Kote road may intensify the process further.

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