Jamshedpur, June 4: After a gap of three years, the Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority (Aiada) has a reason to celebrate.

For, the process of allotment of land to entrepreneurs has finally begun.

The new managing director of Aiada, Nitin Madan Kulkarni, has allotted plots to six new entrepreneurs after taking over charge recently.

The units that were provided industrial plots include SS Wire, Hiran Udyog and Auto Profile. SS Wire was allotted a plot measuring 15,000sqft, Kiran Food Industries got 15,000sqft and Auto Profile was given 30,000sqft.

Officials of these units said they have been waiting for land for a long time. They were allotted land within Adityapur industrial area three years ago but they have been shuttling between Aiada office and the industrial area all these years to try and start work on the land.

These plots had to be taken back from sick units before being given to new entrepreneurs.

Though they had drawn the attention of Aiada towards the sick units and the problem of industrial land being misused, no action was taken by the business body, they said.

Sources said Aiada had sanctioned about 100 new projects and granted extension rights to about 50 units, but did not allot any plot all this while.

The projects having approval from Aiada included a couple of medium-scale units, with profits running into Rs 100 crore and more.

But the good days have just begun, or so said Kulkarni, who claimed the process of allotment of plots to entrepreneurs is just the beginning.

“A report on the sick units, for which I had got a survey conducted recently, is complete. The report is likely to be tabled in the next two or three days. After studying the report, I would get more industrial plots vacated from Aiada command area,” he said.

Kulkarni told The Telegraph that providing land to the entrepreneurs was his priority and unless Aiada gets land back from sick units, fresh allotment cannot be carried out.

The move by the Aiada chief was applauded by Adityapur Small Industries’ Association (ASIA) members.

“For the past few years there had been a stagnancy in the Adityapur industrial area pertaining to setting up of new industries. But the bottleneck seems to be over,” said S.N. Thakur, the president of ASIA.

Thakur said his organisation would extend full co-operation to Aiada in getting back land from sick units.

The management of these sick units have rented out their premises to others or set up houses on the industrial plots. “There are several examples of plots provided by Aiada being used for purposes other than industrial. Such units should be closed and the plots should be handed over to Aiada so that new units may come up,” Thakur said.