Tatas to re-enter Bengal via realty

KOLKATA: The Tata Group’s ‘right moment’ has arrived. The group is finally coming back to Bengal with an initial investment of Rs 600 crore after a long gap of almost six years following its exit from Singur on the eve of Durga Puja in October 2008.
Tata Housing Development Company, the housing and infrastructure arm of Tata Sons, is forming a joint venture with city-based Keventer Group for a luxury housing project in Alipore, its first premium housing project in the east.
In the last annual general meeting of Tata Global Beverages (formerly Tata Tea), then chairman Ratan Tata had said, “Tata Group didn’t desert Bengal after the Singur episode and it would come back at the right moment.”
The Tata JV for housing and infrastructure in Bengal vindicates the last speech of Ratan Tata as the Tata Global chairman. This is the first project of the Tatas in the state under the leadership of new chairman Cyrus Mistry. Tata Housing will hold 51% in the JV while the remaining 49% will be with the Keventer Group. To start with, it would develop a three-acre land parcel near Alipore.
A source close to the development said it would develop 0.5 million sq ft initially and it is expecting a revenue of over Rs 1,000 crore. Earlier, Tata Housing had formed a consortium with Keventer to bid for CTC land in Tollygunge along with some other reputed infrastructure companies in May this year. However, the state government has not yet declared the name of the selected bidder.