The Hindu Business Line : ‘Delay in getting land at right price major problem in Bengal’

Awaiting Govt response: (From Left) Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, Chairman of ITC, Mr Aquil Busrai, President, National HRD Network, Mr B. Santhanam, Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Glass India, Mr Sarthak Behuria, Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation, and Mr Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies, at the inaugural ceremony of “India’s century - The challenges for Indian business leadership,” a three-day NHRD Network 11th National Conference in Kolkata on Thursday.

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Nov 29 At a time when West Bengal is yet to recover from the 11-month long turmoil created out of a (now scrapped) land acquisition proposal at Nandigram, corporate bigwigs like ITC and Infosys today pointed out delay in offering land at the right price as the major roadblock for investing in the State.

Both the companies claim to have approached the State Government with firm investment proposals more than a year ago but were yet receive due response. Infosys wanted to set up a Rs 250 crore facility on 100 acres of land at Rajarhat in the Eastern fringes of Kolkata.

ITC wanted 60-100 acres for setting up a Rs 1,000-crore food and agricultural processing facility.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the 11th National HRD Network conference in Kolkata, the ITC Chairman, Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, and the Infosys Director, Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai, said that they were still waiting for adequate response from the State Government.

Having stuck to their proposals till date, both made it clear that the slow pace of decision-making may impact the State’s growth prospects.

Land offers

ITC, for example, has already received counter offers from Orissa for shifting the project from Bengal. Orissa had also offered two to three locations for setting up the project. “However, I still stick to my commitment to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,” Mr Deveshwar says.

Infosys was offered a piece of land by the Bengal government. However, the price tag was considered to be too steep for an IT company. “In the last six months, we have not received any proposal from the West Bengal Government,” Mr. Pai said. “The project is neither on nor off. ” he added.

Meanwhile the company is moving ahead with its plans in other parts of the country. Rajasthan has recently offered a 200-acre land to the IT major in a SEZ at Jaipur. The Pune facility is now being expanded and it would be completed in June, making it the largest facility of the company in the country. An educational complex will also come up at Mysore in March.

Govt response

Reacting to the issues raised by corporates, the State Commerce and Industries Minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, later said, “The Government is committed to the industrialisation efforts in the State. I am happy to learn that the investors continue to repose confidence in the state leadership. However, the delay in land acquisition is due to a process of consultation with the stakeholders in order to generate confidence that this will help them for a better future. The State Government is always for responsible industrialisation and seeks the cooperation of all concerned including the opposition and other political forces for the overall interest of the people of West Bengal”.