The Bengal government will initiate a process to take back allotted land lying unutilised in the industrial parks of the state as part of efforts to unlock idle assets.

The West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) has identified 600 acres of land, some of them in prime locations, which are not being used by industries for various reasons.

The government has decided to write to the allottees “with full sympathy and compassion”, asking them to provide a timeline to restart work, if any, or return the land.

“We did a survey on lands lying vacant in the industrial parks. We found that close to 600 acres of land in the parks of WBIIDC are stuck. Fifty per cent of them are factories that have been set up but are now closed and in the other half the plants have not started because of financial problems or some other issues,” Rajiva Sinha, chairman of theWest Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, said.

Interacting with the members of CII, Sinha said some of the plots are in the prime locations and could be in demand from industrialists. “We are writing to the entrepreneurs with full sympathy and compassion that if you can’t start the plant, return the land to us. We are expecting to reclaim a lot of idle land. We can give it back to industry afresh,” Sinha added.

Sinha urged industry to share its feedback with the government. “We must bridge this trust deficit between the government and industry,” Sinha said.

On the delay in releasing incentives promised previously but not paid by the government, Sinha cited severe resource crunch because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We simply do not have the resources to honour the commitment. As and when funds come, we will give it to you,” he said.

The incentives were part of the Industrial Promotion Assistant Scheme that was in force from 2013 to 2018 but was not renewed. At present, there is a scheme for MSMEs but the incentive payments have become infrequent because of the pandemic.