Govt to meet industrial area groups, revamp on agenda

NEW DELHI: Industries minister Satyendar Jain will hold meetings with associations of 25 non-conforming industrial areas, including Mundka where at least 27 people died on Friday in a devastating fire in a commercial building near the industrial area, between Wednesday and Friday to discuss redevelopment of the clusters, including preparation of the layout plans, said senior government officials on Monday.

“The meeting has not been called following the fire tragedy. The government has been working on this for some time now. The meeting is to discuss the way forward to redevelop these clusters,” said a senior official from the industries department.

Members of the industrial area associations have said that they have been pushing for redevelopment and expressed hope that the upcoming meetings will address a sticking point related to the preparation of the layout plan -- a task which the associations and the government are putting on each other.

According to a notice dated May 13, seen by HT, the meeting is a “pre-consultation with stakeholders... for preparation of layout plans for the redevelopment of notified non-conforming industrial clusters in Delhi”.

The Delhi government had announced plans to redevelop 25 industrial areas in its 2022-23 Budget, and the members of the associations had even met deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on May 10 to push their case.

While the Delhi government has said the layouts for redevelopment have to be prepared by the associations of the industrial clusters, the latter says that they don’t have the resources or the power to ask people to give up their land for laying essential infrastructure.

A senior industries department official said, “For the redevelopment of these clusters, layouts have to be prepared. As of now, the responsibility lies with the associations.”

In October last year, the Delhi government decided to extend the deadline for preparing the layouts of the industrial clusters by six months, from December 31, 2021, to June 30, 2022.

The decision was taken after associations held a meeting with Jain, who is also the chairman of Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, in September 2021.

“The government needs to get the layouts prepared... We can’t ask people to give up their land for laying essential infrastructure,” said Sunil Chadha, general secretary of Mundka Industrial Area Welfare society.

INDUSTRIAL AREA ASSOCIATIONS WANT THE GOVT TO PREPARE THE LAYOUT PLANS FOR REDEVELOPMENT AND HOPE THE MEETING WILL BRING CLARITY