Sudipto Mondal/The Hindu

• Samiti calls MSEZL a real estate agent
• ISRPL pays Rs. 41.31 crore for 80 acres of land
• Promoters acquired the land at about Rs. 8 lakh an acre

Mangalore, Apr 11: The Mangalore Special Economic Zone Limited has sold over 80 acres of land to a public sector undertaking at Rs. 41.31 crore. The sold land has been carved out of the Phase I of the MSEZ project for which 1,800 acres of land was acquired.

The land, which has been sold at Rs. 50 lakh an acre, was bought from farmers for a fraction of this amount. The promoters of the project procured wet lands for Rs. 8.5 lakh an acre and dry land for Rs. 8 lakh an acre a little over a year ago.

Strategic Storage area

A total of 82.62 acres of land has been bought by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), a subsidiary of the Oil Industry Development Board (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas).

The procured area will be developed as a strategic storage area for crude oil — a total of 1.5 million tonnes of crude will be stored here, according to information available on the Ministry’s official website.

Speaking to The Hindu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MSEZL I.S.N Prasad said: “The total cost incurred by the company for each acre is way beyond the Rs. 50 lakh that it was sold for.” He explained that the company was spending over Rs. 23 lakh an acre (including the land price) for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced people. In addition, the company has to spend on developing infrastructure such as roads, power supply and water pipelines.

Also, according to the environment guidelines, 33 per cent of the land is supposed to be reserved as a “green belt,” where no construction activity could be taken up. Another 12 per cent will be used up to build roads, 165 acres will be used to store water and another 3 per cent of the land will be used for other general infrastructure such as Effluent Treatment Plants and drains.

“We have only 50 per cent of the land left with us for sale. The company is expected to recover its cost from this area,” Mr. Prasad said.

On account payment

The Rs. 41.31 crore, which MSEZL has received from ISPRL, is only an “on account payment,” Mr. Prasad said. This means that the money that has already been received is some sort of a token advance. The ISPRL will bear additional costs incurred for land development, if any.

Mr. Prasad said: “We do not intend to have a profit margin on sale, but we do not want to incur losses either.”

Criticism

President of the Nagarika Seva Trust Guruvayankere Somnath Nayak has that said there are no official figures to prove that the MSEZL has incurred the costs.

Speaking to The Hindu, Madhukar Amin, president of the Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samiti, said the stand of his organisation has been vindicated. “It has been proved that the MSEZL is nothing more than a real estate agent. It has bought land at a throwaway price from poor farmers and sold it for six times the amount.”