Manzoor-ul-Hassan
Srinagar, Aug 2: The industries department in Jammu and Kashmir has received over 5,000 online applications for land allotment since November 2022, pledging an investment of nearly Rs. 60,000 crore, officials said on Friday.
The applicants have proposed to set up factories and other industrial units with an employment potential of over 2 lakh jobs.
The Department of Industries and Commerce (I&C) processes all the applications under the new allotment policy, which includes a single-window system and gives fair weight to projected investment per Kanal, proposed direct employment per Kanal, industrial type, environmental impact assessment, and so on.
To ensure transparency, the department also publishes a list of allottees on its official website, and objections are sought before formal allocation, per officials.
Notably, following the repeal of the special status of the erstwhile state on August 5, 2019, and subsequent amendments to the land laws, the Jammu and Kashmir administration set a target of 4.8 lakh kanals of land to encourage investment in the Union Territory. It comprised expanding existing industrial estates and establishing new estates in Jammu, Srinagar, and other districts.
Until 2020, the government gave the I&C Department 2.4 lakh kanals of land in the UT, including 1.6 lakh in the Jammu division and 80,000 in Kashmir.
