Bhubaneswar, Oct. 17: The Odisha government is no longer in favour of providing land at concession to industrial units in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. They will have to buy land at market prices.

A suggestion to this effect was made by the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority, chaired by chief secretary Bijay Patnaik here today.

According to the Industrial Policy Resolution, 2007, government land used to be provided to new industrial units at concessions for four categories of cities and towns in the state. The cities and towns are categorised according to the level of urbanisation and population. It has been decided that in all the four categories of cities and towns in the state, land would be provided to industrial units at the “benchmark value”, and not at “concessional rates”.

At present, the government offers Rs 5 lakh per acre to new industrial units in cities and towns which fall in Zone-B. These are Angul, Athgarh, Balasore, Berhampur (outside the municipal limits), Champua, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Khurda, Panposh, Puri, Sambalpur (outside the municipal limits), Cuttack (outside the municipal limits) and Talcher (sub-divisions). In all the rural areas of these sub-divisions, land is provided at Rs 2 lakh per acre. The benchmark value of all these places would vary, as it would take the prevailing market prices into account before fixing the price.

Similarly, the concession rate for urban areas under Zone-C (Banki, Baripada, Bhadrak, Bargarh, Balangir, Chhatrapur, Jeypore, Koraput, Rayagada and Sundargarh sub-divisions) has been pegged at Rs 3 lakh per acre. The rate for rural areas under the zone is Rs 1 lakh per acre.

The industrial units to be set up in Zone-D (rest of the state) are to pay Rs 1.5 lakh per acre for urban areas and Rs 50,000 for rural areas.

However, the authority deliberated on giving special concession to social infrastructure projects such as power units, health and educational institutions, public-funded infrastructure projects, information technology and information technology enabled services units.

However, no final decision was taken today. Patnaik asked the officials of the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation Limited to study the existing policies and practices in other states.

The matter is likely to come up in the next meeting for further discussion. The Odisha government will take a final call on the authority’s recommendations, said a senior official of the industries department.