Wb Govt Unfazed By Reports Of Tatas Pulling Out Of Haldia Project

The West Bengal government is undisturbed by reports of the Tatas pulling out of the Haldia Petrochemicals.

A senior ministerial source denied there was any such development involving the prestigious Rs 5170 crore project which is being promoted by the government of West Bengal, the US-based Soros-Chatterjee group and the Tata group.

However, he asserted that even if the Tatas pulled out, the state government would have no cause to worry. In fact, many big industrial groups were interested in the project and have hinted that they were keen to join the project as equity partners, the source said. He added that the project was well under way.

The project cannot stop at this stage and the interest it has generated in the industrial circles has given the state government a sense of confidence that there will be takers for it if either of the private sector partners decide to call it a day.

Tata Tea had replaced the RPG group as the private sector partner in the joint venture when the latter had pulled out. Darbari Seth, at the helm of affairs at Tata Tea then, had taken the plunge but subsequently pulled out saying that Tata Tea would not be able to mobilise funds for a big project like Haldia Petrochemicals.

Head of the Tata House at the time, JRD Tata, came to the rescue of the West Bengal government. Of the Tata Group of companies, Telco stayed put in the project and Tata Electricals was inducted to fill the vacancy caused by the withdrawal of Tata Tea.

Later, Purnendu Chatterjee of the Soros Fund Management of the US decided to join the project with equity participation. The government then decided to set the equity pattern in the ratio of 3:3:1 for the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, Chatterjee Soros group and the Tata group respectively.

There was a perceptible lack of confidence between the Soros-Chatterjee group and the Tatas which had to be bridged by the government nominees on the board.

But the rift could not be concealed all the time. In the Annual General meeting of Tata Tea held here on August 21, Ratan Tata made it clear that Tata Teas advance of Rs 11.89 crore to HPL would either have to be repaid or stake of the Tatas would have to be raised equivalent to the amount yet to be repaid.

Chatterjee-Soros Group, on the other hand, is not happy with the predominance of the Tata men in the management team. Not only managing director, AK Krishnamurthy and executive vice-chairman Subrato Ganguly of ACC Cememnt, are there in the board on behalf of the Tatas, the corporate office of the HPL is dominated by Tata nominees. The Soros-Chatterjee Group was, however, able to push as president (finance), Vijay Chowdhury, who is now in the US.