Bengal lines up land for ITC foods business

The land hunt by ITC for setting up a food processing unit in West Bengal may get over soon.

The West Bengal government had identified and was close to acquiring close to 40 acre of land at Panchla village in Howrah on National Highway 6, 35km west of Kolkata, for the proposed ITC unit.

A senior official at the West Bengal land and land reforms department indicated to Business Standard at a seminar here that the land comprised a small number of large plots with clean ownership title and the owners appeared to be eager to sell.

The price quoted to ITC for the land was around Rs 50 lakh per acre, but the company was yet to accept the offer, the official admitted.

The notification for acquisition of the land had been issued some weeks ago and the process of conducting hearings with all stakeholders associated with the site, like the owners, the local self government bodies and district administration was close to completion, the official indicated.

The proximity of the proposed site to the major potato-growing belt of Hooghly had already attracted a number of food processing units to the area, which was located between the NH6, better known as the Mumbai-Chennai highway, and NH2, the new name for the Kolkata-Delhi Grand Trunk Road.

PepsiCo had operations up and running in the area while a local group called Pailan was setting up another unit in the Howrah-Hooghly belt.

The location of the proposed unit was not too far away from the West Bengal government promoted food park at Pailan and more such infrastructure in the area.

Smaller foods units like Elmac and Bisk Farm were located in the area as well.

Being close to Kolkata, yet in the heart of the state's most prosperous farming zone, the area was also favoured by investors because it had numerous cold storages and elaborate network of roads and train lines.

Earlier, Nazeeb Arif, vice-president for corporate communications at ITC Ltd, had told Business Standard, that ITC was in advanced stages of discussions with the West Bengal government for purchasing about 40 acres for a new food processing unit.

The total investment in the plant would be Rs 300 crore, and it would mainly cater to the ITC snacks line Bingo.

ITC's other agri-retail initiatives in the state, like e-chaupal network of interconnected farm products buying and selling platforms, would depend upon the successful operations of the plant, Arif had indicated.

ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar had also indicated earlier that the company was unable to start an agri-cum-food project in West Bengal, as the state was yet to the provide land.