YEIDA to develop Film City on its own if companies don't come forward

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) will develop the proposed Film City in Sector 21 on its own if it fails to get companies come and set up their units on the terms laid down by the authority.

"We have decided that we will develop this Film City project on our own if the companies will not come forward for the same or if we cannot hire the company on our terms. Therefore, in contrast to the ongoing tender in which we want to hire a company that can develop and engage filmmakers in this project, we will develop all basic facilities such as roads, drains, parks and other services in the Film City and allot plots to filmmakers," Hindustan Times quoted YEIDA Chief Executive Arun Vir Singh as saying.

In an interview recently, Singh said that YEIDA has received queries from big companies such as Sony, Fox and Universal. YEIDA is open for all three models to develop the Film City such as on the basis of public-private partnership (PPP), roping in a single developer or the authority alone.

YEIDA has extended the date of global tender for developers or companies to apply for the project till March 31. However, if the authorities could not get companies to develop, they might allot plots in fragments.

"In that case, we may plan to allocate small plots to different companies. However, a final decision is yet to be taken in this regard and we hope that we will get enough eligible bidders in this global tender process," Singh added.

The Film City, which is a pet project of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, will be developed on an area spread over 1,000 acre of land and is expected to provide world-class facilities for film and television production. The first phase of the project is expected to be ready by 2024 while the final phase is scheduled to be over by 2029.