The DPT and ministry of ports, shipping,
and waterways were trying to convince timber units to come to the SIPC since
2019 for the park, which was an ambitious project of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi.
The much-desired furniture park plans at
Deendayal Port Trust’s (DPT) Smart Industrial Port City (SIPC) in Kandla were
smothered by high land prices. The port administration has recently finalised a
plot of land near GIDC, outside the SIPC, for the development of the furniture
park.
Since 2019, the DPT and the ministry of
ports, shipping, and waterways have been seeking to persuade timber companies
to visit the SIPC for the park, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
grandiose ambition. In recent years, the port authorities and stakeholders,
particularly the Kandla Timber Association (KTA), have held a number of
meetings. When Mansukh Mandaviya was in charge of the shipping ministry, he
organised meetings with lumber units to emphasise the importance of the
furniture park.
However, land price remained to be the
biggest impediment in the issue
Since the beginning in 2019, the KTA had
always argued that the DPT was offering land on a 60-year lease at around Rs
3,500 per square metre. Whereas land in GIDC is available at around Rs 800 per
square metre, they said. The industrialists were demanding parity of land
price.
The DPT then appointed a consultant who
suggested three different parcels of DPT land outside the SIPC to develop the
furniture park. One 150 acre plot near GIDC was agreed upon by both the timber
association as well as the DPT.
S K Mehta, chairman of DTP told TOI, “The
proposal to allot the land for a furniture park near GIDC is in a final stage.
The timber industry units will get plots there at a substantially cheaper rate
than SIPC because there we won’t collect development charges. The unitholders
will do the development work there.”
For better road and port access for the
timber units, the DPT plans to connect this block of land to the national
highway.
Kandla and Gandhidham are wood centres, with
the DPT handling about 70% of India’s timber imports by volume. In the
surrounding districts, various sawmills import timber at the DPT and sell
processed wood across the country. Kutch is an imported timber conversion zone
with about 1,000 units that transform unprocessed logs into wood-based
intermediary products for furniture production.
Navneet Gujjar, president of KTA said, “The
DPT had taken us on the land that is suitable for us. If the DPT agrees to
provide that land at GIDC rate and also develop roads, many members are ready
to come to the furniture park, provided that this proposal gets approved by the
shipping ministry as soon as possible.” Courtesy: www.realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com
