The ten currently operating industrial districts occupy a total of 5,970 ropanies of land. Of this, 4,197 ropanies have already been leased out to industries, while 1,702 ropanies are occupied by access roads, drainage, green belts and other physica linfrastructures. Hetauda and Gajendranaraynsingh Industrial

Districts have some land that still need to be developed and leased out, while the rest of the districts have all their land already leased. Similarly, all the 190 industrial buildings and 46 warehouses built by the company have already been rented out to industries.

Cottage industries are predominant in Patan, Bhaktapur, Gajendranarayan Singh and Birendranagar Industrial Districts, while small and medium scale industries dominate in Pokhara, Butwal, Nepalgunj and Dharan. Medium scale industries lead in Balaju while Hetauda is dominated by medium and large
scale industries. There are several industries in Hetauda, Balaju, Pokhara and Bhaktapur Industrial Districts, operating under investments from foreign and multinational companies.

Training centres for industrial manpower, consultancies, research and quality testing laboratories, workshops, handicraft design research and exhibition centres etc. are also operating in several of the industrial districts. Altogether, 700 industries have been established thus far in the ten industrial districts. The number of various offices and organizations totals 53. These offices and industries provide direct employment to an estimated 18,000 workers. The government has invested an
estimated 124.30 crore rupees in these districts, while the private sector is estimated to have invested an amount of 2026.83 crore. Industrial District Management and Operation Regulation 2071, and Directive 2071, have been enforced to further facilitate the exit of industries from the districts after
selling their assets off and also to ease the leasing of district land and renting out the buildings there.

Industrial districts in new locations and expansion of existing ones are going on in full swing in accordance with the company's objectives. The government's policy to establish at least one large size industrial district in each province is being implemented on a priority basis. Accordingly, detailed
project reports (DPR) are being prepared and physical infrastructure (access roads and boundary walls) are being constructed in six new locations-Damak in Jhapa District, Mayurdhap in Makwanpur District, Motipur in Rupandehi District, Naubasta in Banke District, Daiji in Kanchanpur.

Ditrict and Shaktikhor in Chitwan District. Additionally, pre- feasibility/feasibility studies, DPRs, EIAs etc. are being carried out in five more locations. They are Murtiya (Sagarnath) of Sarlahi District, Chaurase of Surkhet District, Laxmipur of Dang District, Lamki of Kailali District and Chyangli Pliant
of Gorkha District. Once that is completed, work on declaring them industrial districts will begin. Also, pre-feasibility/feasibility studies will be carried out to establish new industrial districts in Rautahat, Tanahun, Kavre, Jumla and Dailekh Districts, apart from another one in Chandani Dodhara of Kanchanpur, as announced by the government through its 2075/2076 budget.

Once the DPRs of the new industrial districts are received, work on construction of access roads and other physical infrastructure will be speeded up in coordination with the government. The objective is to begin industrial promotion in those places within two years after the DPRs are finalized.

In Jhapa's Damak, proposals will be solicited from the private sector, on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, to develop an industrial district there within five years and operate it for a fixed period before handing it over to the company. A public notice has already been issued calling on industrialists to submit their letters of intent regarding the type of industries they want to set up in the new industrial districts coming up in Mayurdhap, Shaktikhor, Motipur, Naubasta, Sagarnath and Lamki.

Once work on all these new industrial districts is complete, new industries are expected to be established in these parts of the country. It is also expected to bring together variously scattered industries in the region onto one spot, besides bringing about a notable increase in economic activities and job creation.The problems faced by industries on the district premises due to power black-outs, arising from Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)'s load-shedding, have been alleviated somewhat lately. NEA has begun building separate feeders to regulateits supply to industries. Such industrial feeders have already been built in Dharan,Hetauda, Balaju, Patan, Bhaktapur, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Gajendranarayan Singh Industrial Districts.

All the assets-land, buildings and mill, machinery and equipment-of Hetauda Textile Industry, a government owned enterprise in Hetauda, have been transferred to this company through a government decision. The government had dissolved this industry earlier. The land that the textile mills occupied, and the buildings constructed there, are to be used to promote industry. The assets will be properly managed once the government issues a clear directive as to whether they should
be used for the revival of the textile industry or allow some other industry to come up from auctioning the assets.

Similarly, this company has taken steps at Ministry of Industry for a decision on the use of the 143.77 ropanies of land and other building assets it has acquired in Butwal for industrial promotion. The land was earlier leased out to Butwal Yarn Industry Limited, another undertaking of the government. It has been re-taken by the company.

This company has already initiated the implementation of the directive of Ministry of Industry and Supplies to merge with National Productivity and Economic Development Centre Limited. The merger is expected to further boost the quality of goods and services produced by various industries in the country.