Bengal to acquire land for industry

The West Bengal government will adopt the acquisition route for getting the land required for the several steel projects in the pipeline.

Speaking on the sidelines of Global Steel 2007, a steel-coal seminar organized by SteelRX in association with the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Sabyasachi Sen, commerce and industry in the Bengal government said, land would be acquired through the acquisition route for the projects approved by the Cabinet.

The projects include Jai Balaji, Bhushan Steel, Abhijit group. For Jai Balaji's project, the collector would issue notice for 1,100 acres. The first phase of the project would entail acquisition 2,000 acres of a total requirement of 4,000 acres.

Sen said, if majority of the people gave their consent, then there would be no problem in adopting the acquisition route.

Earlier, the state government had invoked the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring land in Singur for Tata Motors' small car project, which ran into controversy.

The industry had evinced some interest in purchasing land directly from the owners but there were inordinate delays in the process.

Sen explained that Jai Balaji had so far managed to acquire only 17 acres. He added that if the government stepped in then there would be uniformity in land price as well.

Sen said, the companies would submit their rehabilitation packages soon. The companies which had signed a memorandum of agreement with the West Bengal government would have to submit their rehabilitation package in two months' time.

Even though JSW had announced its rehabilitation package for its 10 million tonne project and even initiated the process, a formal rehabilitation plan was yet to be submitted.

The iron and steel sector was turning out one of the largest investors in Bengal. The investments""greenfield and brownfield""had crossed Rs 1 lakh crore.

One of the major attractions for the sector in Bengal, was availability of coal. West Bengal had already got five coal blocks through the state dispensation route and the sixth one was on its way.

Sen said, the total requirement for the 10-12 steel projects in the pipeline would be in the range of 47 million tonnes and the state had already asked for 10 more coal blocks through the state dispensation route.

The arrangement would be that the steel companies would be appointed mining contractor by West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation.