Bengal will take back Singur land

Nov. 26: The West Bengal government on Thursday said that it would start the process of getting back the land from Tata Motors in Singur if Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) selects the site for setting up a mega power plant there.
“If BHEL selects the land, we will begin the process to get it released,” the state industry minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, told reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Print Pack-2009 conference here.
“I don’t think there will be any problem to get back the land from Tata Motors,” the minister said.
BHEL officials had inspected the site at Singur earlier this month where the state government proposed to set up a 1,600 MW mega power plant as a joint venture.
The railway minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, had last week said the Railways would set up a rail coach factory in the site jointly with the state government or under a PPP model.
But the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhatta-charjee, said that the Railways had not sent any proposal to the state government for setting up a coach factory in Singur.
Global auto major Tata Motors had planned to roll out the world’s cheapest car Nano from the plant it was setting up at Singur.
However, it abandoned the 997.11-acre site following strident opposition by farmers, who were led by the state’s principal opposition party Trinamul Congress. Protestors demanded the return of 400 acres taken from “farmers unwilling to part with the land”.
Tata Motors has since then shifted the Nano project to Sanand in Gujarat, though it still possesses the Singur plot.
The Tata Sons chairman, Mr Ratan Tata, has said that if the state government compensated the auto maker, the company was ready to return the land.
Talking about the proposed JSW Steel project in Salboni in West Midnapore district, Mr Sen said the government expected the company to start work by next April.