Apart from Chordia, MIDC has also recently approved an industrial park by Lodha Developers in Usatane village in Thane.
The Maharashtra government is taking the public-private partnership (PPP) route to develop large industrial parks in Maharashtra with developers, who have large land parcels with them, to enable faster access to the land for potential investors in the state.
The first of these industrial parks in Western Maharashtra has taken off with the launch of the Chordia Industrial Park at Shirwal (near Pune) in partnership with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporations (MIDC) in PPP mode. “Several potential investors have evinced interest in the park including manufacturing companies from Germany, Thailand and the US,” Pradeep Chordia, director, Chordia Industrial Park, said. Despite delays due to Covid-19 and operational challenges, the park has already struck deals for 20 acres with five companies starting work on their projects, Chordia said.
The Chordia Industrial Park was set up under the Maharashtra government’s Integrated Industrial Area (IIA) scheme to encourage private developers to get into industrial parks and overcome land acquisition challenges for companies. Developers have to have a minimum of 100 acres as per the IIA scheme for setting up these parks and they have to offer 60% of the land for industrial use, 30% for residential and 10% for commercial activities. “Industries with large land parcel requirement can now opt for this. It is convenient now for both the developer and the investors who can overcome bureaucratic delays and difficulties in land acquisition,” Chordia said.
A major difference between the government and private industrial park is that while MIDC land is offered on a 99-year lease, the land in private industrial parks can be sold as freehold property with no restrictions on use or transfer, points out Chordia. Apart from this, there is a lot more flexibility within the private parks which is not possible in government-owned land, where there are a lot of restrictions, he adds. This makes private industrial parks an attractive option, he said. The land rates in the Shirwal area are at around Rs 1.5 crore per acre currently.
Chordia has already developed a food park in the vicinity where food processing companies have come up, including his own company Chordia Food Products. The new Chordia Park has come on 250-acres at Shirwal with MIDC approving the masterplan and notified as to the planing body in charge of all sanctions and permissions within the park.
MIDC already has its industrial estate in Shirwal. Around 1,000 acres across two phases have already been taken up and there is a waiting list for land here so MIDC is acquiring additional land for phase III. Asian Paints, Godrej & Boyce Appliances, Thermax, NIPRO Corporation, Finolex J Power and KSB Pumps are some of the corporates already operating from Shirwal industrial area.
Shirwal is 50 km from Pune and is in Satara district so attracts `D’ Zone (backward region) status with a slew of incentives under the Maharashtra government’s industrial policy from GST refund, waiving of stamp duty and differential electricity charges.
Apart from Chordia, MIDC has also recently approved an industrial park by Lodha Developers in Usatane village in Thane. Another private industrial park is coming up at Bhiwandi and Hiranandani is developing a logistics park at Talegaon. The IIA was created to re-purpose the de-notified SEZs in Maharashtra and is now seen as a way ahead for developing industrial infrastructure, Chordia said. MIDC is actively promoting these private industrial estates to overseas investors.
The Maharashtra government is slated to come up with a new policy for industrial infrastructure in the state where developers would be given autonomy like the ones offered to residential township projects in the state. They would be able to raise revenues and retain 90% of the revenues with MIDC getting the remaining 10% share.
Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/private-industrial-parks-take-off-in-maharashtra/2110168/