The West Bengal government is conducting a comprehensive review of its industrial land assets, aiming to revitalise underused estates, address infrastructure gaps, and attract investment through new policies and land reuse initiatives.
West Bengal has begun a wide-ranging review of its legacy industrial land as the state government looks to revive underused assets, close infrastructure gaps and frame new industrial and land policies, according to Indian Express reporting. The move comes as the administration tries to sharpen its pitch to investors while dealing with longstanding concerns over land availability, a recurring bottleneck in the state’s industrial strategy.
Industry Minister Tapas Roy said on Sunday that the exercise is intended to assess how much land is tied up in older industrial estates, where infrastructure needs repair and which plots can be brought back into productive use. He also said the government is drafting broader policy changes alongside the review, signalling that the effort goes beyond a one-off audit and is meant to feed into a larger industrial reset.
Roy’s comments also addressed questions raised after BJP Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya spoke publicly about delays linked to the Union government’s BHAVYA scheme. According to Roy, state officials met on July 3 at Vanijya Bhawan with Principal Secretary Vandana Yadav and agreed to submit proposals within August. He said the state wrote formally to the Union government on July 24 setting out that timetable and that, although the Centre has extended the deadline for several states to September, West Bengal still plans to file its detailed proposals before the end of August.
The broader policy backdrop is a renewed emphasis on land for manufacturing. Nation Press reported that the state has started surveying idle land held by closed industrial units so it can be reused for industrial promotion, micro, small and medium enterprise clusters and first-time entrepreneurs rather than for real estate development. Other reports have said the government is considering a direct land purchase policy and possible changes to the Urban Land Ceiling law to improve supply. That approach reflects a familiar West Bengal challenge: industry leaders have long complained that clearance delays and a thin land bank make it harder to move projects quickly, even as the state has said it has created new industrial areas since 2011.
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