Salim has exited from projects, says minister

As the state government prepares to start talks with the Centre to include the 96 kilometer (km) Raichak-Barasat expressway including the bridge at Kukrahati in the 13th Plan, the Indonesia based Salim group may be making a quiet exit from West Bengal.

Once dubbed at the biggest foreign direct investement in the state, Salim Group's ventures in West Bengal included two special economic zones, a clutch of townships, and a cluster of industrial estates included the Raichak Expressway that the group had promised to build for free in lieu of land for its township projects.

It got land virtually free for a 400 acre satellite township called Kolkata West International City on the Kona Expressway 10km from Kolkata.

The project foundation plaque was laid in February 2006 and was yet to be completed.

Salim Group had offered to build the Raichak Expressway together with the bridge over Haldi river at Kukrahati for free in lieu of land, said Kshiti Goswami, minister in-charge of Public Works Department.

"We have estimated that cost of land together with the political costs of acquiring land for the 96km road and Salim's township at Baruipur would not be a feasible idea at this moment", Goswami said at an interactive session at the Merchants Chamber of Commerce (MCC).

Goswami estimated that the net land requirement for the road and township projects could be around 2400 acres.

After the panchayat elections in May 2008, the state government decided not to acquire farmland for purposes of industry. It would rather act as a mediator so that land owner and investors could directly deal in land. Salim had not agreed to such a proposition and therefore, exited from the state.

Interestingly, it had already cashed in on the 400 acres for the Kolkata West project.

The state government would now look for funding options for the Raichak Expressway, Goswami said. The 1.5km Kukrahati bridge, which Goswami called the signature project of West Bengal, would be at the mercy of the Central government.

“We would try to persuade the department of surface transport of the government of India, to take up the Expressway project”, Goswami added.

Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was working as technical consultants on the Kukrahati bridge project before Salim was chosen for the project. Salim’s entry had eliminated JICA from the project in 2007. The feasibility and the option of constructing a link under water was under study.