No external development charges for Udyog Vihar

A decade-old confrontation between the Udyog Vihar Industries Association (UVIA) and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), over the issue of External Development Charges (EDC), has come to a halt, for the time being. Deevakar Anand reports.

A decade-old confrontation between the Udyog Vihar Industries Association (UVIA) and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), over the issue of External Development Charges (EDC), has come to a halt, for the time being.

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HSIIDC has withdrawn its demand of EDC at R348 per square metre from the industrialists who question the idea of it saying they got land from HSIIDC as a free hold, fully developed plot and paid all the relevant cost at “more than the market rates”.

UVIA had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court against the “imposed” EDC where HSIIDC and Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) which is also a party, drew flak from the court for failing to substantiate the demand.

HSIIDC had first made the demand in 2000. This came after Huda which allocated land to HSIIDC raised a similar demand from the latter at Rs 40 per square metre in 1986. According to UVIA president, Animesh Saxena, it was when HSIIDC did not pay Huda, and the charges accumulated to huge sums that the industrial corporation started “coercing” the industrialists.