Ludhiana: PUDA launches industrial park project near Mattewara forest amid opposition from environmentalists

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, August 25

In a brazen show of ‘high-handedness’ and ‘arrogance’, the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has gone ahead with the formal announcement over setting up of an industrial park on 955 acres in Koom Kalan here.

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In the wake of fierce opposition by groups of environmentalists and conservationists, the proposed industrial park has been named as Koom Kalan Industrial Park in place of Mattewara, as some parts of the land acquired for the purpose were reportedly part of the reserved forest area.

The project has been mired in controversy from the very beginning with residents of several villages, including Sekhowal, Salenpur, Sailkiana, Gari Fazal, Garcha and Haider Nagar, in the district expressing opposition to setting up industrial units in floodplains of the Sutlej and conversion of the forest land for commercial purposes.

In fact, residents whose land were acquired for the project had opposed the forcible acquisition of land but the government machinery went into overdrive and land in six villages was taken over with the help of panchayats under political pressure.

Several NGOs, social, religious and environmental groups had been staging protests and dharnas at the site of the proposed industrial park and offices of the Deputy Commissioner, PUDA and GLADA here to build pressure for shelving the project. But ultimately, the government had its way.

In this regard, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had recently issued directions to the state government through its Chief Secretary on a petition filed by the Council of Engineers (CoE) to first get the floodplains of the Sutlej around the site at Mattewara demarcated and only then, take any further action for setting up the industrial park. However, apparently these directions have also been ignored.

In a public notice, PUDA has invited ‘expression of interest’ (EOI) for the ‘Modern Industrial Park’ at Koom Kalan for plots in varying sizes from one acre to 50 acres. Eligibility of applicants for seeking the plots would be based on their average annual turnover during the past three years, ranging from Rs 5 crore to Rs 250 crore. The applicants would have to pay a refundable demand survey fee of Rs 1 lakh for a plot measuring up to 5 acres, Rs 2 lakh for 10 acres and Rs 5 lakh for plots measuring 25 to 50 acres.

According to the PUDA public notice, the tentative price of the land has been fixed between Rs 1.15 crore and Rs 1.90 crore per acre, depending on the size of the plot. The last date for submission of the EOI would be September 15, 2021.

National Green Tribunal directions ignored

In this regard, the National Green Tribunal had recently issued directions to the state government through its Chief Secretary on a petition filed by the Council of Engineers to first get the floodplains of the Sutlej around the site at Mattewara demarcated and only then take any further action for setting up the industrial park. However, these directions have also been ignored.