CII Proposes Unified National Industrial Land Bank To Expedite Acquisition

New Delhi: Leading industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday called for the creation of a unified national industrial land bank with a computer-backed facility to offer real-time information to investors and expedite land acquisition for companies to spur manufacturing. Modelled on the GST framework, a national industrial land council or NILC will set national standards, harmonize land-related regulations across states, monitor implementation and act as a dispute-resolution body as well.

In a statement, the CII also said that this geographic information system (GIS)-enabled land bank would provide a wide spectrum of inputs, including on land availability, zoning status, utilities, environmental constraints, encumbrances and title clarity. The recommendation is part of a report — CII Land Mission: Framework to Reform Industrial Land Management in India, prepared by T V Narendran, Tata Steel managing director and past president of CII.

The report, however, outlines a roadmap to address structural and procedural bottlenecks in India's industrial land ecosystem. “Such a platform would significantly enhance transparency and enable informed, faster investment decisions. The report also draws attention to the wide inter-state variation in stamp duty and registration charges and significantly escalates upfront project costs and distorts investment decisions across geographies,” the CII said.

As per the CII, 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,” the industry body said, adding that these challenges significantly increase the cost of capital, delay project commissioning, and undermine investor confidence, particularly for MSMEs and greenfield investments, it observed.

“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. 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,” Narendran stated in his report.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII also stated that 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. “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,” Banerjee said.