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Handed over, Bengal’s land waits and waits for industry

In an email response, The land allotments Mukherjee cited were slightly at variance.

Nayachar, where the group has got nearly 12,000 acres. Source:File Nayachar, where the group has got nearly 12,000 acres. Source: File

Since 2004, the West Bengal government has allotted over 12,000 acres prime land to a Singapore-based industrialist, nearly all of it during the Left Front regime. Little of the projects he was supposed to develop has got off the ground over these 10 years.

Prasoon Mukherjee, chairman of Universal Success Enterprise Group, concedes having been allotted or committed 12,546 acres, the showpiece being 11,875 acres on Nayachar island, initially for a petroleum and chemicals hub and now meant to have a thermal plant and an industrial park.

State industry department sources have a list of more allotments than Mukherjee has described to The Indian Express, including for one project during the Trinamool Congress regime. In an email response, The land allotments Mukherjee cited were slightly at variance, project for project, with the government sources’ figures.

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On Monday, while inaugurating a factory in Salboni, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned Jindal Steel that unless it completes its steel plant there, the government would take back all 4,000 acres. Since her government assumed power in 2011, the commerce and industry department has listed groups that haven’t set up industries after being allotted government land, and taken back land from some entrepreneurs. Asked if the government has ever asked him to return land, Mukherjee said, “The question does not arise.”

Commerce and Industry Minister Amit Mitra was sent the same questionnaire as Mukherjee but has not replied. He told The Indian Express: “Why you are asking the government these questions? Ask the group.”

Festive offer

Partha Chatterjee, the TMC government’s first commerce and industry minister said, “We had asked the group to start the projects for which they had taken land from the government. In some cases we asked the group to return the unused land. However, I cannot comment on the steps or actions taken as I have been transferred.”

In 2014, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation allotted 350 acres in Raghunathpur in Purulia for a 490-MW thermal power plant. WBIDC vice chairman Abhirup Sarkar, insisting that he be quoted in his capacity as an economist, said, “As an economist, I believe the government should take action against all non-performers. USE group did not implement several projects.”

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A look at the status of the projects for which Mukherjee concedes having been allotted land.

Nayachar island
11,875 acres

The project: In 2009, 12,000 acres of land on this island off Haldia was leased to Prasoon Mukherjee’s New Kolkata International Development for a petroleum and chemicals hub. NKID paid Rs 28 crore, which is about 5 per cent of the then market value as estimated by the land and land reforms department, sources in the department say. Then land minister Abdul Rezzak Mollah says, “We from the land department had given an estimate of Rs 800 crore to the government as the price of the land. But Mukherjee wanted to give Rs 20 crore. The government got the land transferred to the industry department and allotted the land at Rs 28 crore only.”

Progress: This project was scrapped following the Nandigram agitation, but the land is still with the group which now wants to build a power plant, while the government has asked for an eco-tourism project.

Mukherjee says: “In November 2011 a new development agreement was signed with the GoWB replacing the agreement of July 2006 in terms of which USE is to develop the non-CRZ area to set up a thermal power plant and an environmentally-sustainable industrial park and the non-CRZ area for environmentally sustainable tourism. Detailed project reports have been submitted to the government for these projects. USE Group has spent over Rs 250 crore on the technical studies (by local and foreign consultants) feasibility studies, design, and other expenses.”

Kolkata West International City
377 acres

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The project: Near Kona Expressway in Howrah, for an integrated township. It was to be built by a consortium that included Indonesia’s Salim Group. With Salim having since exited, Mukherjee’s USE is the sole executor. It was supposed to have been completed by 2010 with schools, hospitals, commercial complexes, a sports complex, multiplexes, a post office, a police station, and a community centre.

Progress: Work has been done on a residential complex over 80 acres. The municipality has issued completion certificates to 508 housing units, and some 45 families live there, but the buyers allege infrastructure is lacking. Over 850 buyers have paid 80 to 90 per cent of the cost of the houses, says Abhay Upadhyay, president of KWIB Buyers’ Welfare Association. Some have moved court against the promoters.

Mukherjee says: “…We are constructing an integrated residential township.”

Mahabharat Motors 99 acres

The project: In 2007, WBIDC leased 68 acres for “Mahabharat Motors” in Uluberia at Rs 10.50 lakh per acre. Another 33 acres was handed over next to the plot at Rs 15 lakh per acre. “They paid much lower than the actual rate,” Mollah says. The land figures as cited by the industry department add up to 101 acres; Mukherjee’s count is 99 acres.

Progress: The group has made an arrangement with TVS Scooters for assembling parts. On a recent visit, The Indian Express found only a factory shed constructed on a plot of 12 acres.
Mukherjee says: “A state-of-the art motorcycle factory is operational. The factory was set up with technical inputs from TVS Motors Ltd, and produces TVS branded motorcycles.”

The other 195 acres

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Mukherjee says: “The state government has agreed to lease 96.5 acres at Baruipur, in terms of the agreement signed, in November 2011, to set up a township. However, considering the extremely high development cost and investment of Nayachar island, the lease is to be executed. Similarly, GoWB has also agreed to lease 250 acres of land in Haldia [for a township], of which 98.5 acres has been identified but no agreement is in place.”

To a question about a business incentive given to him, Mukherjee said, “WBIDC granted a term loan of Rs 25 crore at an interest of 1% above BPLR (12.75%) per annum out of which Rs 17.45 crore was drawn down. The loan was used in the construction of the Mahabharat Motors. This loan has been repaid to WBIDC.”

First uploaded on: 16-07-2014 at 00:32 IST
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