By Team Mangalorean

Mysore January 4, 2010: With real estate activity now on hold and the retail boom slowing down, the Mysore city is being identified as an alternative destination for the development in Karnataka and it is the industrial real estate scenario that continues to gain momentum. Notwithstanding to the downturn in the economy and the global financial crunch, which put many investments in projects on hold, the demand for industrial real estate in the city seems to be high.

While it may not translate into investments or creation of jobs immediately, the fact remains that land is considerably cheaper in a Tier-II city like Mysore when compared to Bangalore, which is bursting at its seams. Hence, it is not surprising that the Government has directed the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) and the local District Industries Centre to identify non-agricultural land to create what has been termed as "Land Bank." Investors keen to establish manufacturing units in Mysore may find themselves scouting for locations outside the existing industrial area because of lack of space. The horizontal expansion of the city, coupled with real-estate sharks gobbling vast acres of land for speculative investment, has made it difficult to allot sites near the city, while the existing industrial estates in Hootagalli, Metagalli and Coorgalli are saturated and no fresh allotments have been made in the past two years.

According to Mysore Industries Association (MIA) Secretary Suresh Kumar Jain, the Government convenes meetings for global investors and agrees to allot land in principle, but the fact of the matter is that there is no land to be allotted as new industrial sites. Mr Jain said that even local investors and entrepreneurs were finding it difficult to get land sanctioned for establishing small-scale industries.

"When there is no land for local investors who have been waiting for many years for allotment of sites, how can new investors hope to secure land," he asked. Nearly 600 entrepreneurs and potential investors applied for sites through the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) in 2006 and of them 350 were short-listed. But, out of them only 80 had managed to secure land so far. The rest were still waiting for new land to be identified, he said, adding the allotment was made through the District Industries Centre (DIC). In view of the scarcity of land, authorities identified nearly 5,000 acres of land along the H D Kote Road and a joint inspection was conducted by members of the MIA, the DIC and the KIADB. "We have ensured that the land identified for industries is dry land. We do not want to take prime agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes," Mr Jain said.