While efforts are being made to boost industrial growth in the region, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) on Thursday made a shocking revelation about the current status of the industrial units in Vidarbha. Dr Vipin Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of MIDC, said about 50 per cent of the total 16,000 plots allotted to entrepreneurs so far in various MIDC industrial areas in Vidarbha are ‘unproductive’ for one or the other reason.
for one or the other reason. “For different reasons, production is not happening in nearly 50 per cent units in Vidarbha. The recent COVID pandemic is one of the major reasons,” he said. Dr Vipin Sharma was in the city to interact with the representatives of various associations of industrialists of the region. Some of the units have stopped production because of market conditions, some are financial matters, some are under construction while many others are facing legal issues, he said.
The ‘unproductive’ plots are located in all the eleven districts of the region including the much-hyped ‘5 Star’ category Butibori Industrial Area, Hingna MIDC and other industrial estates. However, Dr Sharma said, MIDC is committed to resolve as many cases as possible so that the ‘unproductive’ units could be made operational. Earlier, Pravin Tapadia, Past President of VIA, highlighted major issues that are troubling the entrepreneurs. He said that the files related to allotments, extension of validity or extension of the 2 year allotment window, etc. are being sent to MIDC’s Mumbai office.“It is not only time consuming but very frustrating for the entrepreneurs.
There should be some system (of MIDC) to clear the files at the regional level,” he observed. For any transfer of plots etc., the Regional Office (RO) of the MIDC currently asks for an NOC from District Industries Centre (DIC) and water department among other departments. “This is not required in an online process. Hence we request you to kindly instruct RO not to demand such documents to minimise delays,” Tapadia said. In addition, MIDC has made it mandatory to use 40 per cent of FSI within 2 years of allotment. ButVIA pointed out that it is not practical since an industry is set up with an outlook for 10 years.
“An industrialist has to spend an undue amount on this. The time limit for 40 per cent FSI consumption should be increased to 10 years and only 20 per cent of FSI consumption as earlier should be mandatory in the first three years of allotment,” Tapadia said, highlighting many other issues related to MIDC. Highlighting the issues of entrepreneurs in Butibori industrial area, Nitin Lonkar, President of Butibori Manufacturers Association (BMA), said, “more than 10 years have passed since Additional Butibori Industrial Area was developed near existing Butibori Area but it is observed that due to exorbitant rate of industrial plots and lack of facilities and supporting infrastructure, the investment is not happening as per expectations.”
Lonkar said BMA may be included in the promotion and marketing activities of plots so that the association could act as a catalyst agency for promotion of Additional Area jointly with RO office, MIDC, Nagpur. Lonkar spoke about many other issues too. Capt. C M Randhir, President of MIDC Industries Association (MIA) said heaps of garbage entrepreneurs are facing hardship because of the heaps of garbage lying in Hingna. Many other similar issues were also raised on the occasion.
At the outset, Ashish Doshi, Secretary -VIA, gave the introductory remarks while Vishal Agrawal, President ofVIA, welcomed Dr Vipin Sharma, Upendra Tamore, Deputy CEO (Vidarbha) – MIDC, and other officers of MIDC.
