Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, Aug 6: Srinagar Master Plan draft (2035) which has been prepared by Town Planning has revealed poor state of industrial sector in city and on its outskirts and has recommended revival of sick units, development of new estates as well as job creation.
“The issue of industries has been a subject of extensive debate and concern over the past three decades,” reads the master plan draft and notes: “The J&K State does not have a robust industrial base though many small and medium-scale industries have come up in the traditional sectors and in areas like food processing, agro-based units and metallic and non-metallic products. This has centred mainly on the aspects of industrial sickness and closure of many industrial units.”
Being the most urbanised part of the State, the Valley has remained as an industrially backward region. The master plan draft states that “unfortunately, the Valley could not attract investments in industrial sector for multiple reasons which include prevailing uncertainty, insufficient capital, lack of technology and infrastructure, poor connectivity and frequent power cuts”.
Notwithstanding the factors that have resulted in distracting the investors, the master plan draft says that the Srinagar city has some service and small scale industrial units besides centuries old local craft like wood-carving, shawl and carpet making, stone polishing, paper machie, etc. “As per the data collected from Department of Industries and Commerce, the city has about 4300 kanal of land under eight industrial units besides the industrial estate at HMT, Zainakote (400 Kanal),” it states. The Department is also in the process of finalising 1000 kanal land at Budgam for the development of another major Industrial Estate.
According to the draft, around ten Industrial Estates (IEs) are located in Srinagar city region providing jobs to more than 8,000 people. Besides these industrial estates, there are as many as twenty cement factories located in Khrew and Khonmoh due to availability of high quality limestone in the area. The JK Cements Limited- a PSU is the largest cement factory with installed capacity of 600 tonnes/day. The factory provides direct and indirect employment to over 1000 skilled, semi-skilled and specialised workers.
As per the estimates, the State has invested about 400 crore on industrial development in Srinagar Metropolitan Region though no sizeable impact is seen on ground which can be attributed the fact that about 40% of industrial units are dysfunctional and sick, the master plan draft notes. The Industrial Estate at Zakura is the worst affected where most of the units are either closed or dysfunctional.
The State Pollution Control Board (PCB) has identified 177 industrial units under “RED “category (polluting industries) and 79 industries under “Orange” category. A cluster of RED category industries like the stone crushers at Rakh-e-Shalina and Lasjan, and cement factories at Khonmoh, Wuyan and Khrew need to be phased out periodically especially in the second phase of this master plan, it recommends and adds that the areas are proposed to be preserved for replenishing the degraded ecology of the area.
It is also proposed that the bulk storage depots of petroleum products at Sanat Nagar and Hyderpora are proposed to be phased out from these areas to Petroleum Bulk Storage Depot either at Khonmoh or Balhama, the draft reads. The Town Planning Organisation states that the industrial sector is in a highly poor condition in the State in general and Valley in particular despite various Government efforts.
The draft proposes that there is need to create more jobs in the secondary sector which will require revival of sick industrial units in all Industrial Estates and extension of industrial base by developing new industrial estates in suburban districts like Budgam, Pulwama and Ganderbal.
“It is recommended that the age old Silk and Wollen factories at Rajbagh and Bemina be revived for which sufficient budgetary allocations may be earmarked in annual budgets. It is in place to mention here that the Silk Factory Rambagh be shifted to village Mirgund, tehsil Pattan in the vicinity of Mulberry farms for production of quality silk.
“The Industrial Estate at HMT Zainakote be developed into an Electronic and Software Park for manufacturing electronic goods and development of software applications besides providing IT-based solutions to customers within and outside the state. The Kashmir region has huge potential for the development of agro-based industries due to large-scale fruit production like apples, pear, apricot, walnut, cherry etc,” the master plan draft of Srinagar reads.
Diversifying of agriculture and connecting it with the industries will give a boost to local economy, the draft suggests. “In this regard, it is recommended to develop Food Parks and Export Promotion Industrial Parks at Khonmoh and Budgam,” it states. It is also proposed that the areas presently under defence use by Army and security forces need to be evacuated for development of industrial activities.
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