The Confederation of Indian Industry has proposed the establishment of a National Industrial Land Council (NILC) with the Centre and states as stakeholders to enable faster industrialisation in India.

Modelled on the GST Council, the NILC can be entrusted to set national standards, harmonise land-related regulations across states, monitor implementation, and act as a dispute-resolution body, the industry platform suggested.

The recommendation is part of a report, “CII Land Mission: Framework to Reform Industrial Land Management in India”, led by TV Narendran, MD of Tata Steel and past president of CII.

It outlines a roadmap to address structural and procedural bottlenecks in India’s industrial land ecosystem. A key recommendation of the report is the creation of a unified, GIS-enabled National Industrial Land Bank, offering real-time information on land availability, zoning status, utilities, environmental constraints, encumbrances, and title clarity.

Such a platform would significantly enhance transparency and enable informed, faster investment decisions. The report also draws attention to the wide inter-state variation in stamp duty and registration charges, which CII said significantly escalates upfront project costs and distorts investment decisions across geographies.

It has, therefore, recommended the adoption of a uniform, nationally guided stamp duty for industrial land, aimed at reducing transaction costs, improving predictability, and ensuring that investment location choices are driven by economic fundamentals rather than regulatory arbitrage.

India’s manufacturing ambitions under Make in India, National Industrial Corridors, renewable energy expansion and modern logistics cannot be realised unless industrial land becomes predictable, transparent, and investment-ready, Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of CII, observed.

“The CII Land Mission provides a practical, implementation-oriented framework that respects social safeguards while enhancing time efficiency, predictability and coordination across the land value chain,” he said.

Industrial land remains a foundational input for manufacturing, infrastructure, renewable energy and logistics. However, the current landscape across states is characterised by fragmented processes, regulatory complexity, unclear land titles, delayed possession, and underutilisation of allotted parcels, said CII.

These challenges increase the cost of capital, delay project commissioning, and undermine investor confidence, particularly for MSMEs and greenfield investments, it observed. Many industrial projects, most notably Tata Nano plant at Singur in Bengal, had in the past tripped over challenges linked to land.