High land prices suffocated the much sought-after furniture park plans at Smart Industrial Port City (SIPC) developed by Deendayal Port Trust (DPT) in Kandla. The port authority has now finalized a land outside the SIPC near GIDC to develop the furniture park. 

The DPT and ministry of ports, shipping, and waterways were trying to convince timber units to come to the SIPC since 2019 for the park. A number of meetings too were held between the port authority and the stakeholders, especially the Kandla Timber Association (KTA), in the past few years. Even Mansukh Mandaviya held various meetings with timber units explaining to them the importance of the furniture park when he was holding charge of the shipping ministry. 

However, land price remained to be the biggest impediment in the issue.  Since the beginning in 2019, the KTA had always argued that the DPT was offering land on a 60-year lease at around Rs 3,500 per square metre. Whereas land in GIDC is available at around Rs 800 per square metre, they said. The industrialists were demanding parity of land price. 

The DPT then appointed a consultant who suggested three different parcels of DPT land outside the SIPC to develop the furniture park. One 150 acre plot near GIDC was agreed upon by both the timber association as well as the DPT. 

S K Mehta, Chairman of DTP told, “The proposal to allot the land for a furniture park near GIDC is in a final stage. The timber industry units will get plots there at a substantially cheaper rate than SIPC because there we won’t collect development charges. The unit holders will do the development work there.” 

The DPT is also planning to connect this plot of land with the national highway for better road and port connectivity for the timber units. Kandla and Gandhidham are timber hubs where nearly 70% of timber imported by volume in India comes through the DPT. 

There are several sawmills in the nearby areas which import timber at the DPT and sell processed wood across the country. Kutch is an imported timber conversion zone with over 1,000 units convert the imported unprocessed timber logs into timber-based intermediate products for furniture manufacturing.

Navneet Gujjar, President of KTA said, “The DPT had taken us on the land that is suitable for us. If the DPT agrees to provide that land at GIDC rate and also develop roads, many members are ready to come to the furniture park, provided that this proposal gets approved by the shipping ministry as soon as possible.”