The Rakesh Mohan Committee Report refers to Integrated Industrial Parks as “self contained island providing high-quality infrastructural facilities. Integrated industrial parks offer industrial, residential, and commercial areas with developed plots/ pre-built factories, power, telecom, water and other social infrastructure”.
| Stakeholders | Benefits offered |
| For Users: |
- Availability of high quality infrastructure in a centralised manner for the end-user industries resulting in lower transaction costs and shorter start-up time for them.
- Economies of scale in terms of development of land and infrastructure, including common facilities.
|
| For the State: |
- Macroeconomic benefits like, increase in industrial development, growth of hinterland, etc.
- Geographical spread of industrial development including development of backward areas.
- Fulfilment of state’s social objectives like generation of employment, creation of social infrastructure, etc.
- Revenues generated by the government through taxes and duties
|
| For the Developer / Operator: |
- Commercial returns received by the park developer, operator and utility provider
|
Domestic Experience
The industrial parks are usually promoted by the SIDC or such other government agency / statutory authority. The projects are planned, approved, developed, managed and regulated by a governmental agency with minimal private sector participation.
There are different schemes under which the industrial parks could be promoted including: Growth Centre, Export Processing Zone, Free Trade Zone, Export Promotion Industrial Park, Software Technology Park, Electronics Hardware Technology Park
The key features of the industrial parks development in India are:
- Status of the industrial parks sector varies from State to State, wherein states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, AP, Tamil Nadu, etc. have made significant progress in promoting industrial parks / estates.
- The approaches relating to development, administration, regulation, etc. of industrial parks also vary according to the political and developmental compulsions faced by the individual States.
- Primarily, the industrial parks have been promoted by the government and its agencies with minimal private sector participation (PSP). PSP in industrial parks has met with partial success in India and that too has primarily been restricted to the IT parks.
- A few examples of the private initiative in industrial parks development are Information Technology Park (ITPL), Bangalore; Infocity, Hyderabad; Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram; etc. The Mahindra City at Chennai was envisaged initially as an Auto Park. However, over a period of time, the concept was changed and the park started focussing on IT and ITeS. The IT sector boom could perhaps have contributed to the development and success of IT parks.
- Often, the decision to set-up an industrial park reflects the political and social objectives of the government. With parks throughout the State normally under a single agency, typically the SIDC, the revenues from parks at industrially forward locations are used to cross-subsidise the parks in the backward areas.
- Industrial parks in India often suffer from inadequate maintenance, and lack professional management.