Many state governments have shown interest in buying “salt land” controlled by the Union government at concessional rates and negotiations are underway, a senior official said adding that the states are likely to use the land for infrastructure upgrade.
“We have not taken a final call on that. There is an active committee of secretaries on it (salt land sale). We will take proposals (of the state government to them) once we negotiate reasonable rates,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
Before the negotiation process, the report of the valuer will be obtained for the land parcels that state government seek to purchase.
The Centre owns 59,793 acres of salt land across the country via the salt department of the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT). Around 5,000 acres is in Mumbai and its suburbs.
The larger interest is in the salt land of Mumbai but it cannot be made available for commercial use. Other salt land parcels are available in coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
These are relevant for infrastructure projects and logistics parks, the official said.
The current guidelines do not permit the sale of salt land to private entities. It can only be transferred to the central government (ministries/departments/PSUs) and state governments (ministries/departments/PSUs).
Sea salt accounts for 82% of the total salt production in the country. Gujarat accounts for 85.8% of the production, followed by Tamil Nadu at 6.47% and Rajasthan 6.35%.
The total area under salt production in the country is about 0.657 million acres, of which 59,793 acres belong to the salt department of the DPIIT.