Nearly 100 units set up by Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) in Daman and Diu are facing an uncertain future as their leases, most of them signed 30 years ago and expired in 2015, are yet to be renewed.
Procedural delays between Daman & Diu and Goa-GIDC have spelt trouble for the industrial units as bankers and financial institutions are demanding new leases.
Back in 1985 — when Goa, Daman and Diu (GD&D) was a Union Territory — the IDC, which was the UT’s industry promotion corporation, had set up an industrial estate in Daman and Diu. The land, an area measuring 68,000 sq. metres was acquired in Daman by the then UT Administration, and handed over to IDC, which allotted the plots to investors. When Goa became a State in 1987, Daman and Diu continued to be a UT, and IDC was converted into Goa Industrial Development Corporation. The IDC continued its jurisdiction over Daman industrial estates.
When the leases expired in 2015, 18 industrial investors approached ASSOCHAM national chairman of SMEs Committee Manguirish Pai Raikar to intervene in the matter. Mr. Pai Raikar, said that Deputy Collector Uttam Tyagi told him that no papers regarding IDC’s lease agreements were available with the Daman administration as handing over had not taken place. A group of farmers approached Mr. Pai Raikar and told him that they were yet to get the compensation for their land acquired before 1985. The Dy. Collector admitted that the award was not finalised.
