Land losers of titanium project file PIL for return of land

The land losers of the Rs 1,200-crore titanium project proposed jointly by Indian and Russian promoters at Chhatrapur in south Orissa's Ganjam district have approached the Orissa High Court, seeking return of their land in the backdrop of an inordinate delay in project execution.

The villagers, under the banner of Land Losers’ Welfare Association (LLWA), have filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court in this regard.

The jinxed project, initially conceived as a joint venture between Kolkata-based Saraf Agencies and a couple of state-owned Russian companies, was unable to progress due to squabbling among the partners over the title of project land. Later, the exit of the Indian partner over the issue has almost pushed the project into a blind alley.

“We have filed a PIL as the project has not progressed much even though the people of the area had voluntarily given their lands,” said Braja Acharya, a counselor for the association.

The land losers, who were expecting a discussion on the project between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during Singh's recent visit to Moscow were disappointed over the project not figuring in the agenda for bilateral talks.

“We were expecting that the proposed project would be discussed during the meeting between the leaders of both the countries, but we came to know it did not figure in the discussions,” said P Dharma Reddy, president of LLWA.

“We have been waiting for nearly four years after losing the land. Now we have knocked the doors of the court to get justice,” said Reddy.

The Titanium Products Private Limited (TPPL), a special purpose vehicle was formed on January 29, 2008 by Saraf Agencies Private Limited (SAPL) and Russian partners- Russian Federal Agency for State Property Management (ROSIMUSHCHESTVO) and JSC Technochim Holding for setting up of the titanium dioxide plant.

As per the original scheme of things, the Russian partners- State Property Management Agency had 51 per cent stake in the JV and Technokhim Holding 4 per cent stake. The balance 45 per cent stake was held by the Indian partner- Saraf Agencies.

Around 230 acres of land held by 1,200 people in four villages including Kanamana, Tikiria Berhampur, Chandrapada and Maipatna were acquired for the project.

The state-owned land acquiring agency, Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco) had allotted 250 acres to Saraf Agencies which was stridently opposed by the Russian partners of the project. The Russian promoters wanted the land allotment in the name of TPPL.

Even after several rounds of negotiations, the two sparring partners failed to cut any ice, with the dispute finally culminating in the exit of Saraf Agencies from the project.

Though the Russian promoters had announced to set up the project on their own, work on the project was yet to be started. The Russian promoters had insisted on international arbitration for solving the dispute.

After the pull out of Saraf Agencies, the state government had hinted at picking up stake in the project.

The proposed titanium dioxide plant was to produce 108,000 tonnes of titanium slag, 68,000 tonnes of high purity pig iron, 40,000 tonnes of dioxide pigment and 10,000 tonnes of titanium sponge.