Self help

New Delhi, Sept. 30: The Centre has told states keen on mega oil hubs that developers who actually establish them must acquire the land on their own.

The decision was conveyed some time back to the states, and the Centre has advised that as far as possible the hubs should not be set up on farmlands.

Proposed by the fertilisers ministry along with the Planning Commission, these hubs are for petroleum, petrochemical and chemical industries.

Unlike the controversial special economic zones, only up to 40 per cent of the land may be used for industrial purposes. The proposed size of a hub is 250 square kilometres.

Officials in the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers said, “This means that old villages, which may be present in the region, can continue to be there and need not be relocated.”

They said the infrastructure in these villages would, however, have to be upgraded to the level desired by the developers.

Till now, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have applied for the hubs, while Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu have expressed their intentions.

According to the officials, developers buying land on their own and not depending on state government acquisitions, mean only “serious players who are actually interested in setting up such a region will come in and not those who are merely interested in realty”.

In SEZs, the Centre has recently proposed a dilution of the norm that keeps states away from acquisitions.

New draft rules say states can help out developers by acquiring up to 30 per cent of the land.

Stung by the Nandigram agitation over a hub, the Bengal government has proposed Nayachar, an island off Haldia. “We believe that there are existing fishing villages in Nayachar. We have in informal discussions told the state government that there are no problems in letting them be there,” officials said.

However, they said a hub must clear an environment impact assessment.

The green lobby in Bengal is opposed to the hub at Nayachar. They fear an extinction of marine life and a loss of livelihoods.