Paradip: The state-owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) will acquire over 284.15 lakh sqm (28,414 acre) of land to form a land bank for establishment of petrochemical projects near 111 villages in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts, a report said.
The land will be acquired within the next 20 years for establishment of petrochemical projects.
The matter came to the fore after IDCO’s bid for establishment of land bank received an overwhelming support from residents at a public hearing camp held Wednesday.
Funds worth Rs 16,482 crore will be spent on the projects which will be able to generate direct or indirect employment for over 4 lakh people in these two districts. Only government land and some farmlands will be acquired for the projects while homestead land will be left untouched.
The unemployed youths in both these district will be trained for their skill development before establishment of the industries.
The public hearing camp was jointly organised by IDCO and Jagatsinghpur district administration at the Kalyan Mandap at Madhuban in the port town.
In the public hearing, very few people spoke on the land acquisition while over half of the attendees expressed strong support for land acquisition for establishment of the land bank.
Kanhu Charan Dhir, additional district magistrate and Dillip Kumar Das, regional officer of state pollution control board (SPCB) attended the camp and heard the opinions of residents.
Ashok Mishra, CGM, IDCO and RK Mohapatra, regional head IDCO said that the proposed land bank is not new but the state government has proposed for formation of a land bank since 2007.
Hyderabad-based Environment Protections Training and Research Institute has done environment impact assessment of the area and ruled out any damage to the local environment due to establishment of industries on the proposed land bank.
The land bank will cover around 26 villages of Ersama block, 21 villages under Kujang block, 12 villages of Marshaghai block and 52 villages of Mahakalapara block.
These lands will be acquired in a phased manner in the next 20 years and will be kept under the IDCO land bank. Petrochemical projects will be established on acquired lands for which raw materials will be made available from the Indian Oil refinery project at Paradip.
After acquiring the land, IDCO will develop infrastructures on these acquired lands. All those industrial firms wishing to establish their industries here will no more face hurdle in land acquisition.
PNN