66.5 lakh sq mt land given to industries by Gujarat govt

More than 66.5 lakh sq mt of land has been given to companies that signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the state government during the Vibrant Gujarat Summits in 2009 and 2011 and demanded land, the government said in the assembly on Friday.

Revenue minister Anandi Patel said in a written reply that land was allotted to Larsen & Toubro, Asmi Salt, Kintesh Synergy, Gujarat Power Corporation Limited, Jai Hind Projects, and Saurashtra Iron Forging, among others in different places.

“Applications were received from 129 companies for land. Of these, 45 applications were rejected, 16 were accepted, while 68 others were either filed or are pending. The land was given to these companies through sale or on long-term lease,” the minister said in response to a question by Porbandar MLA Arjun Modhwadia. The reply claimed that the sought land had been denied to several companies for various reasons, including it being grazing land or private land, non availability of grazing land in other cases, pre-existing reservation on the land, the land being disputed, among others.

In some cases, the land demanded had been sought by another company, and a decision had been taken to allot the land to it. “Land has been denied to a large number of companies, while many other applications are pending,” she said. The applications of a number of companies, including Adani Power Limited, Lanco Solar, Moser Baer, Modest Infra, CCL Auto Electric, had been filed.