CII Pushes Land Reforms to Unlock India's Manufacturing Potential

The report, titled "CII Land Mission: Framework to Reform Industrial Land Management in India", outlines a roadmap to address structural and procedural bottlenecks in India's industrial land ecosystem.

"India's manufacturing ambitions under Make in India, National Industrial Corridors, renewable energy expansion, and modern logistics cannot be realised unless industrial land becomes predictable, transparent, and investment ready," said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII stated.

"The CII Land Mission provides a practical, implementation-oriented framework that respects social safeguards while enhancing time efficiency, predictability and coordination across the land value chain," he mentioned.

Industrial land remains a foundational input for manufacturing, infrastructure, renewable energy, and logistics.

However, the current landscape across states is characterised by fragmented processes, regulatory complexity, unclear land titles, delayed possession, and underutilisation of allotted parcels.

These challenges significantly increase the cost of capital, delay project commissioning, and undermine investor confidence, particularly for MSMEs and greenfield investments.

The report undertakes a detailed assessment of the entire lifecycle of industrial land, covering land search and identification, application, allotment, change in land use (CLU), title and due diligence verification, acquisition, physical possession, post-allocation utilisation, and institutional capacity.

A key recommendation of the report is the creation of a unified, GIS-enabled National Industrial Land Bank, offering real-time information on land availability, zoning status, utilities, environmental constraints, encumbrances, and title clarity.

Such a platform would significantly enhance transparency and enable informed, faster investment decisions.

The report also advocates for a fully integrated digital single-window system for industrial land applications.

This system would consolidate approvals across departments, standardise documentation, enable real-time tracking, and introduce clear service-level agreements (SLAs), including deemed approvals for non-sensitive clearances. Assigning a designated case owner for each application would further improve accountability and reduce inter-departmental delays, according to the report.

"The challenge in industrial land is not only acquisition, but readiness and utilisation. Even after allotment, projects get stuck due to possession issues, infrastructure gaps, unclear titles, and prolonged downstream approvals," said TV Narendran, Chairman, CII Land Mission and Past President CII.

The Land Mission proposals focus on end-to-end reform, right from clean land banks and faster acquisition to utilisation norms, dispute resolution, and institutional accountability, he added.

The report also draws attention to the wide inter-state variation in stamp duty and registration charges, which significantly escalates upfront project costs and distorts investment decisions across geographies. CII has recommended the adoption of a uniform, nationally guided stamp duty for industrial land, aimed at reducing transaction costs, improving predictability, and ensuring that investment location choices are driven by economic fundamentals rather than regulatory arbitrage.

At the institutional level, CII has proposed the establishment of a National Industrial Land Council (NILC), modelled on a GST-like framework, to set national standards, harmonise land-related regulations across states, monitor implementation, and act as a dispute-resolution body.

- IANS