Bengal to talk to Tatas on Singur land after railway proposal

The West Bengal government Tuesday ruled out immediate termination of the lease of automobile major Tata Motors on the abandoned Singur plot and said talks would be initiated with the company only after receiving a concrete proposal from the railways on setting up an industry on the land.

Briefing mediapersons at the state secretariat Writers' Buildings here, Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said: "Those wishing to build an industry there will have to spell out the nature of the unit and the manner of execution. These are pertinent questions."

The state government and the railways have been locked in an exchange of letters in the wake of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee evincing interest to construct a railways coach manufacturing centre on the Singur land.

Tata Motors last year shifted to Gujarat's Sanand its Nano small car factory from the 997.11 acres acquired by the state government in Singur after a sustained Trinamool Congress-led peasant agitation demanding return of 400 acres to farmers from whom land was 'forcibly taken'. Since then, the plot is lying unused, though the Tatas still hold the lease.

In its bid to set up an industry on the plot, the state government had tried to rope in Chinese automobile major First Automobile Works and power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), but the effort failed.

After Banerjee suggested the railway project, the state government immediately reacted positively and sent a missive to the central government. Since then the two sides have been engaged in a battle of attrition through letters.

Chakraborty denied that the government was dragging its feet on beginning the process of getting back the land from Tata Motors.

"Irrespective of who sets up industry in Singur, we have to take the land from the present lesee. Once we get a concrete proposal, we shall hold talks with the Tatas. Besides, we have to talk to the vendors of ancillary units," he said.

"We hope a concrete proposal will emerge," he said.

Responding to a query on Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata's comment that his company would have to be compensated before it handed back the Singur plot to the government, he said: "Nobody has asked for compensation. The government has also spent a lot of money on the land. if that be the case, who is going to compensate us?"

Last updated on Dec 15^th, 2009 at 22:55 pm IST--IANS