Rupesh Samant

Panaji, Jul 10: The Goa government has been looking at opening more space in its industrial estates to accommodate newer investments in the coastal state.

Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) chairman Glenn Ticlo told reporters on Tuesday that the latest amendment to the existing law would defreeze around 3.7 lac square metre of land in various industrial estates across the State.

Ticlo said that the state government has amended the Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building Construction) Act, 2008 and Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations, 2010 act, as per which the open space areas in the industrial estates have been reduced from 15 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

“This will provide around 3.7 lac square metre of land in different industrial estates which were reserved as open spaces. The available land can be allotted to new investments,” he said.

Ticlo said that the state government is also looking at distributing 24 lac square metre of land which has been unlocked from Special Economic Zone promoters.

The Goa government had worked out an amicable settlement with five SEZ promoters who have agreed to give back the land, which they were holding since 2006.

Ticlo said that the entire exercise of identifying more land to attract new investments would be completed in the next three months.

He said that the availability of land has been one of the major issues affecting industrial growth in the state.

There are a total of 2489 industrial units spread across 23 industrial estates in Goa. Verna (south Goa) is the largest estate with 539 units, followed by Kundaim (north Goa) having 356 industries.