Giving a major fillip to small-scale industries, the district panchayat will start industrial estates in three taluks in the district during 2012-14.According to the recently presented plan document of the local body, 10 acres of land in the taluks of Kozhikode, Vadakara and Koyilandy will be taken over for the purpose and infrastructure facilities will also be provided for starting industrial units to interested persons.
For this, the Kozhikode district panchayat has set aside an initial fund of `51 lakh.“The decision to start more industrial units in the district was taken after the successful functioning of the Industrial estate at Cheruvannur-Nallalam.
As per the plans the project will be implemented in two annual plan periods from 2012- 13 and 2013-14.In the current fiscal, steps will be taken to identify land at Vadakara, Koyilandy, and Kozhikode.
Aside from attracting investments, this initiative of the district panchayat will also create more job opportunities,” said Kanathil Jameela, district panchayat president.
At present, a total of three industrial estates and ten mini-estates exist in the district.Out of these, Cheruvannur industrial estate is the only one under the direct control of the district panchayat, with a total of 40 small scale industrial units currently operating under it.
However, officials said that one of the major hurdles for the ambitious project is to find appropriate land.“Already, several applications for starting new units are pending before us at the District Industrial Centre.
But the major constraint in the implementation of the project is finding the land for the project.As per the government guidelines, we cannot buy land from the open market and will have to acquire land at the price notified by the government.
We have also decided to approach NABARD for more funds as the initially allocated funds are not likely to suffice,” said an official at the District Industrial Centre.