Shweta Kamat
PANJIM: Nearly 140 units set up by Goa Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in Daman and Diu are facing an uncertain future as the leases, most signed 30 years ago, expired in 2015 and are yet to be renewed.
The Goa government has decided to transfer the loss making industrial estates of Daman and Diu to the respective local administration after the Union Territory rejected IDCs request for renewal of the lease for Diu industrial estate by 69 years.
Procedural delays between Daman & Diu Administration and IDC for renewal of leases, which depends upon the State government decision, have spelt trouble for the industrial units there.
In all 141 small and medium scale units are running on 207 plots in the industrial estates of Daman and Diu. GIDC spends Rs 6.03 lakh per month and earns Rs 5.06 per month from Daman industrial estate while in the case of Diu, the expenditure is Rs 1.9 lakh and income is Rs 1.5 lakh per month.
A senior official confirmed that the delay in renewal is because the Daman & Diu administration has still not agreed to several requests by IDC for extension of leases, so that IDC can handover the Daman and Diu industrial estates to the Union Territory.
“The Collector, Union Territory of Daman and Diu has rejected IDC’s request for extension of lease for Diu industrial estate by 69 years. The proposal was rejected in 2013 and again in 2015. Hence, the government has decided to transfer the industrial estates to the respective administration,” the official said.
Government land of 1,10,638.00 sq mts at Malala, in Bucharvado village in Diu was leased out to the then Goa, Daman and Diu Industrial Development Corporation (GDDIDC) for a period of 30 years in 1982, which expired in October 2012.
In the case of Daman, Goa government had acquired two lakh sq mtr of land while another 87,600 sqm of land has been transferred from the Union Territory administration.
The official stated that the government is planning to transfer the industrial estates to the Daman and Diu administration. “Though the government had earned much profit on both the industrial estates in the initial period, it is now facing financial losses,” sources said.
An official said that since Daman and Diu ceased to be part of Goa after the latter attained statehood in 1987, policy makers are forced to review Goa’s presence there.
