An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office park, which has offices and light industry, rather than heavy industry. Industrial parks are notable for being relatively simple to build; they often feature speedily erected single-space steel sheds, occasionally in bright colours.
Industrial parks are usually located on the edges of, or outside, the main residential area of a city, and are normally provided with good transportation access, including road and rail.[1] One such example is the large number of industrial estates located along the River Thames in the Thames Gateway area of London. Industrial parks are usually located close to transport facilities, especially where more than one transport modes coincide, including highways, railroads, airports and ports. Another common feature of a North American industrial park is a water tower, which helps to hold enough water to meet the park's demands and for firefighting purposes, and also advertises the industrial park and locality, as usually the community's name and logo are painted onto its surface.[2]
This idea of setting land aside through this type of zoning has several purposes:
For the manufacturing companies located in industrial parks, the performance of industrial park operators is important, as the costs for infrastructure and services charged by the industrial park operator is a serious factor for the competitiveness of the manufacturing companies.[7][8]
Different industrial parks fulfill these criteria to differing degrees. Many small communities have established industrial parks with only access to a nearby highway, and with only the basic utilities and roadways. Public transportation options may be limited or non-existent.
Industrial parks in developing countries such as Pakistan face a myriad of additional difficulties. This includes the availability of a skilled workforce and the clustering together of radically different industrial sectors (pharmaceuticals and heavy engineering, for example), which often leads to unfavorable outcomes for quality centered industries.[citation needed]
An industrial park specializing in biotechnology is called a biotechnology industrial park. It may also be known as a bio-industrial park or eco-industrial cluster.
Flatted factories exist in cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, where land is scarce. These are typically similar to flats, but house individual industries instead. Flatted factories have cargo lifts and roads that serve each level, providing access to each factory lot.
India was one of the first countries in Asia to recognize the effectiveness of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) model in promoting exports, with Asia's first EPZ set up in Kandla in 1965. In order to overcome the shortcomings experienced on account of the multiplicity of controls and clearances; absence of world-class infrastructure, and an unstable fiscal regime and with a view to attract larger foreign investments in India, the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Policy was announced in April 2000.A special economic zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country's domestic economic laws. India has specific laws for its SEZs.The category 'SEZ' covers a broad range of more specific zone types, including free-trade zones (FTZ), export processing zones (EPZ), free zones (FZ), industrial estates (IE), free ports, urban enterprise zones and others. Usually, the goal of a structure is to increase foreign direct investment by foreign investors, typically an international business or a Multi National Corporation (MNC).
Notable SEZs in India
An organized industrial zone (Turkish: Organize Sanayi Bölgesi) is a kind of special economic zone in Turkey. These zones were legislated for between 2000 and 2007, and may bring together related (OIZs for function) industries or just be a special zone for many industries (mixed OIZs). Not every industry is allowed to operate in organized industrial zones.[9] Organized industrial zones are not duty-free, but there are considerable tax[citation needed] and location(by making related industries closer) advantages. OIZs are related to[clarification needed] industrial parks in some countries.[citation needed]
