Q.Write a short note on: Industrial Estates.

An industrial estate is a planned, developed area with ready factory sheds and common infrastructure where small and medium industries are located together, so that they can start quickly, share facilities and help spread industry to backward regions.

An industrial estate (also called an industrial area or industrial park) is a tract of land developed and sub-divided into plots or built-up sheds, provided with common infrastructure, and made available to industrial units — especially small and medium enterprises. It is an important instrument of industrial policy, which the AP Intermediate 2nd-year Economics course (aligned with the NCERT/CBSE commerce curriculum) covers as follows.

Features and purposes of industrial estates:

1. Ready infrastructure. Roads, power, water, drainage, communication and factory sheds are provided in advance, so entrepreneurs need not arrange them separately.

2. Encouragement to small industries. They lower the cost and effort of setting up a unit, which particularly helps small and medium entrepreneurs.

3. Balanced regional development. By locating estates in backward and rural areas, industry is spread more evenly across regions.

4. Economies of agglomeration. Grouping related industries together allows them to share facilities, services and markets and to supply one another.

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