HEADING
Attracting investments: GIDC & IPB in sync
INTRO
1.83 lakh square meters of land allotted by Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) to 13 projects cleared by investment promotion board (IPB)
BOX
PIC: INDUSTRY
THE ALLOTTEES
Varun Beverages
38,000 sq meters
Sanguem Ind Estate
25,056 sq meters
Decoluxe India
25,056 sq meters
Medispray Labs
19,528 sqmeters
Indoco Remedies
19,288 sq meters
Apex Packing Prods
18,014 sq meters
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KARAN SEHGAL
PANAJI
Goa government’s vision of making investment promotion board (IPB) and Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) work together to bring more investments into the state seems to be working as GIDC has allotted land to thirteen projects cleared by IPB.
“We have allotted 1.83 lakh square meters of land to 13 projects approved by IPB. These are special projects, which means non-polluting industries the state government is focussing on”, said Ganesh Gaonkar, chairman at GIDC
When the then chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, created IPB last year, there were apprehensions that IPB would merely add another bureaucratic layer to the entire process of getting approvals from the government. A number of industries had faced delays and other issues in getting approvals from government departments even before IPB came into being. Given that, industry players were more concerned about the ability of IPB and GIDC to work together for industrial growth in the state. The issue was the overlap in IPB’s and GIDC’s roles. While the former is concerned with getting speedy approvals for investment proposals across the state, the latter is the ultimate government corporation for allotment of land in the industrial estates.
As per the information available from GIDC, Varun Beverages has been allotted 38,000 sq. meters of land in Sanguem Industrial Estate, Decoluxe India has been allotted 25,056 sq. meters of land in Kundaim Industrial Estate, Medispray Laboratories has been allotted 19,528 sq.meters of land in Kundaim Industrial Estate, Indoco Remedies has got 19,288 sq. meters of land in Verna Industrial Estate and Apex Packing Products has got 18,014 sq. meters of land in Kundaim Industrial Estate
Varun Beverages belongs to RKJ Group - a conglomerate with business interests in bottling, food chain and education. RKJ Group has bottled and marketed Pepsi and also has a total of 46 Pizza Hut restaurants and 1 KFC restaurant. Since pharma is a thrust sector under ‘Goa Investment Policy – 2014’, three out of thirteen companies, which got land belong to this sector. Indoco Remedies is among the most prominent names in pharmaceutical sector in Goa and Medispray Laboratories is a wholly-owned subsidiary of pharma giant Cipla.
“We have allotted land to industries falling under green and orange categories only as we haven’t provided land to red category industries”, informed Gaonkar. Red category includes highly polluting industries, orange includes mildly polluting industries and green includes marginally polluting industries.
