Siliguri, Jan. 8: Jalpaiguri Municipality is considering an agreement with Bengal SREI infrastructure Development Limited that will help the civic body make money from its unused land-holdings.
Bengal SREI is a joint venture of the SREI Group and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.
“The civic body owns several unused plots of land across the town which can be used for different development work to generate additional income,” said D. P. Roy, the Congress MLA from Jalpaiguri.
Roy had arranged for a team of officials from Bengal-SREI to visit the town last year.
“Both the municipality and the residents of the town will benefit if the civic body enters into a joint venture with the company which has come up with proposals like building shopping malls or super-speciality hospitals on these locations,” Roy said.
Anjan Roy, the chief executive officer of Bengal-SREI, told The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta that the visit to Jalpaiguri had given him a glimpse of the untapped market there. “We are interested in signing an agreement with the municipality and have already sent a draft MoU to the civic officials. It is now time for them to act,” he said.
Mohan Bose, the chairman of the 25-ward Jalpaiguri municipality, confirmed that they have received the draft MoU. “But before we enter into any agreement and finalise a project for a particular site, we need to evaluate the land and update our asset register. That work is now underway,” the chairman added.
Bose said the civic body had unused plots of land in Mahamayapara, New Town Para and on D.B.C. Road. According to the draft MoU, the civic body will either get a regular rent, monthly or annually, from Bengal-SREI or get a portion of the total revenue earned from projects implemented at its sites.
The chief executive officer of Bengal-SREI also spoke of the possibility of setting up food processing and agro-based units in the industrial estate near Jalpaiguri, but said the rates were “too high”. The company, which already has plans for two SEZs in south Bengal (Rajarhat in North 24-Paraganas and Kharagpur), will base itself in Jalpaiguri and look to expand its activities in north Bengal, Roy added.
