Meghalaya Cabinet okays proposal to increase lease period on govt land to 60 years

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 2, 2024

The state Cabinet on Monday approved the proposal for increase the lease period on government land to sixty years in order to encourage large scale investment on developmental projects in the state. 

Addressing media persons after the meeting, Tourism Minister and government spokesperson Paul Lyngdoh said, “We have approved for the extension of lease period for government land to facilitate developmental projects.” 

“As you are aware currently we have a policy whereby the lease period for allotment for government land to lessees, which are individuals and entities is fixed at 30 years but in view of the need and the increasing number of proposals for large scale investments and projects, we deemed that this duration is insufficient to attract investors, who would like a reasonable return in their investment,” he said while adding “The cabinet through the department of revenue and disaster management came up with a proposal to change and alter this extension of the lease period of government land from the existing 30 years to a period of 60 years.”

He further informed, “This is to be made further renewable for a period of additional 30 years for projects under different investments mode. This we hope it will help to incentivize, encourage and also attract investors to invest in various projects in the state of Meghalaya and especially in sectors, which are showing signs of growth and hold promise for further enhancing the economy of the state.”

Asked, Lyngdoh said, “(We have taken this decision because) we want to create an environment, which facilitate and encourages private parties and investors to invest in Meghalaya.” 

“Now as per the existing policy in a government land, the permissible lease period is 30 years but in a lot of emerging scene what is happening is that the return on investment (ROI) is very critical component of any investment plan, so lot of investors consider this period of 30 years to be too less. For instance, in the Orchid Polo, which will now come under the joint venture mode, the investment plan would be not less than Rs 300 crore, which is why we needed to have a rationale lease period, which would encourage players to come forward and participate and with that in mind, we have extended the window to make it feasible for large scale projects, to have from 30 years to a period of 60 years. It will be renewable by another 30 years,” he added.