No more e-auction, Yamuna authority to allot industrial, mixed use plots on ‘objective criteria’

The Uttar Pradesh government has directed the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) to allot plots meant for industrial and mixed-land projects along the 165km Yamuna Expressway using the objective criteria.

Under the objective criteria, the authority gives marks to a company on the basis of its financial strength, work experience and interview performance, among other categories, to decide whether the company is eligible to be allotted a plot or not.

Yeida officials said plots meant for industrial and mixed-land use will be allotted only to the company that will score the maximum marks during the allotment process.

The move has come after the state government realised that e-auction discouraged entrepreneurs or investors who need plots for setting up business units at reasonable rates instead of participating in open bidding that escalates the cost of the industrial plot, said officials.

“The state government’s decision is to allot industrial plots and mixed-land plots using the objective criteria,” said Jaivir Singh, joint secretary, Uttar Pradesh government, through a letter sent to the Yeida chief executive officer.

This came in response to Yeida on February 26, 2024, seeking instructions from the government regarding the allotment of industrial and mixed-land use plots.

Now, Yeida will not allot industrial and mixed-land use plots through e-auction. It will be done through ”objective criteria” that includes key components of interview in which a company director explains about their vision about the business and investment that they are going to make in the region, said officials.

Yeida wants to allot five plots meant for data centre projects and eight plots for mixed-land usage that consists of residential and commercial projects near Noida international airport. But the process was halted because the authority was waiting for directions from the state government. The data centre plots are of 20,000 square metres to 23,000 square metres in size.

The plots meant for mixed-land use are in the size of 40,000 square metres to 91,225 square metres.

“Now that we have got the direction from the state government, we will follow the objective criteria that includes carrying out an interview of the company head. We need to allot five data centre polots and eight mixed-land use plots,” said Arun Vir Singh, chief executive officer of the Yeida.