Close on the heels of suspending labour reforms and providing ample legroom to existing and new industrial units in the state to help alleviate post Covid-19 distress, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to accord industry status to warehousing and logistics sector, thereby, reducing the cost of setting up of such units.
Stating that chief minister Yogi Adityanath has given his consent for the new incentive for warehousing and logistics sector, industrial development minister Satish Mahana said that this sector had immense potential to create enormous job opportunities that are required to address the unemployment crisis faced by migrants who are forced to return to their home states.
“By granting industry status to the sector, the state is on its way to establish itself as a favourable destination for investments in the sector in northern India,” the minister said, adding that operations of warehousing & logistics sector will now be considered as industrial activities by all state development authorities in the context of land-use.
Infrastructure and industrial development commissioner Alok Tandon said that this will drastically lower the cost of setting up units in Uttar Pradesh.
“From now on, industrial land-use charges will be applicable to warehousing & logistics sector units and parks in the state. Presently, change of land use is charged at 150% of circle rate from agriculture to commercial land use, which will be only 35% of circle rate as agriculture to industrial land-use change will be applicable,” he said.
Elaborating on the new initiative, principal secretary, Infrastructure and Industrial Development, Alok Kumar, informed that henceforth, activities of warehousing and logistics parks and units will be allowed for land-use of ‘industrial land’ in all industrial development authorities of the state in accordance with the provision of ‘UP Warehousing & Logistics Policy-2018’.
“Now warehousing and logistics units will pay 1.5 times of the industrial rate to industrial development authorities for allotment and land use of areas reserved for industrial activity, which will enable substantial cost saving compared to existing costs of establishing units in the sector as land costs will be reduced to almost one-third; for instance, at present the land available to warehousing and logistics sector costs an average of Rs 40-60,000 per sqm, which will be reduced to around Rs 15-20,000 per sqm only after this provision ”, he added.
Orders have been issued to all industrial development authorities, including Noida, Greater Noida, UP State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA), Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA), Satharia Industrial Development Authority (SIDA), Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority (GIDA) and upcoming Integrated Industrial Township Greater Noida on Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC-IITGNL) to adopt this provision by amending their master plans and building by-laws immediately.
