One-Stop Repository of India’s Land Bank Launched

In a move to make it easy for investors to identify sites for setting up manufacturing units, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal launched a one-stop repository of the country’s land bank comprising information on available and vacant plots, satellite view of terrain and heat maps on the natural resources there. The National GIS-enabled Land Bank system- a database of industrial areas and clusters across states- has information on more than 3,300 industrial parks across 31 states and UTs covering about 4.75 lakh hectare land. Information available includes forest, drainage; raw material heat maps (agricultural, horticulture, mineral layers); multiple layers of connectivity. The project is launched for six states with others likely to be on boarded by December. The portal will also have information related to champion sectors and high priority sectors under “Make in India” such as state and district wise net industrial land available, relevant contact details, traces the land available for investment, current external infrastructure geo-tagged such as road, rail, airport and dry port connectivity to all industrial hotspots. The approach seeks to add existing industrial capacity beyond the urban areas and create productive manufacturing from a rural/semi urban areas. The exercise is part of India’s efforts to attract investments into the country. The government is already working on a one-stop digital platform to obtain all requisite central and state clearances required to start business operations in India.