Uttar Pradesh faces uphill task to provide land for around 20,000 MoUs signed during global investor summit

n February, Uttar Pradesh announced the culmination of its global investor summit, sharing details that 35 of its departments signed around 20,000 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with various entities for investments in projects worth ₹35 lakh crore

LUCKNOW: In February, Uttar Pradesh announced the culmination of its global investor summit, sharing details that 35 of its departments signed around 20,000 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with various entities for investments in projects worth ₹35 lakh crore.

Uttar Pradesh faces the big challenge of providing suitable land to investors to execute the agreements. (HT Archive)

Now, as the entities involved start working on the projects -- MoUs do not necessarily translate into projects in the ground -- Uttar Pradesh faces the big challenge of providing suitable land to investors to execute the agreements, people aware of the matter said.

According to these people , the government has received proposals related to 3,500 MoUs that together require 75,000 acres of land (this is almost half the size of Lucknow city). On March 27, chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra issued guidelines, directing officials to identify government or private land for the projects.

“It is too early to figure out as to how much land will be required to execute around 20,000 MoUs as the exercise to identify projects needing land is still incomplete,” industrial infrastructure development commissioner Manoj Kumar Singh said.

“However, I am told that proposals for 75,000 acres of land required for 3445 MoUs have been received so far,” he said, caveating that in some cases, “investors may already have land available for projects they want to set up.”

Singh admitted that arranging land for the projects is a challenge. “But all efforts are being made to successfully meet the challenge by taking a number of steps in this regard, besides the government having created land bank for the purpose,” he added.

For instance, the MoUs concerned solar projects alone require 40,000 acres of land, according to UPNEDA director Anupam Shukla.

Theguidelines issued by the chief secretary said that district-level MoU implementing units headed by the district magistrates will be responsible for making land available to investors and ensuring time-bound clearances.

Investors will be required to file a form online for allotment of land for a project and the applications will be forwarded to the districts concerned, according to the guidelines.

In case of requirement of government land for a project, the DM concerned will forward the request to the industrial development authority . In case of requirement of private land, the DM concerned will identify such land, they added.

“District MoU implementing unit/industrial development authority will inform the DM of availability of land or submit report on non-availability of land within 15 days of receiving the application,” said the guidelines.

Investors will have the choice to choose any of the land options suggested by the DM or reject them.

A senior official of the industry department said: “As we could see there is no dearth of investors eager to invest in UP and there is no lack of banks/ other financial institutions willing to give loan for projects. But the availability of undisputed, affordable and suitable land for setting up the new projects does remain a challenge and all possible steps are being taken to address this.”