Kolkata SEZs Stuck Because of LLRD Refusal

May 8, 2009	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Several SEZs in West Bengal are stuck even after receiving all formal approvals, because of the refusal of the state land and land reforms department (LLRD) to record the change in status of the land from farm land to one eligible for industrial use. The failure of the land reforms department has also held up finalisation of the financing package for the SEZs because the proposals could not be placed before bankers with the land recorded as agricultural land. For instance, the IT park adjoining the Calcutta Leather Complex in Bantala has become a dumping ground for pollutants.

Around 130 acres, out of the 1,200 acres of the leather complex, was sanctioned for the IT park in 2006, and the facility was to be commissioned by the first quarter of 2010. Around 17 companies, including Cognizant Technology Services, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and Patni Computers, purchased land for approximately Rs 75 lakh per acre. However, as of now, hardly 25 per cent of the 130 acres has been developed. According to officials in Infinity Infotech, which had acquired four acres, work could not start if pollution levels were so high. According to Ramesh Juneja, the president of the Calcutta Leather Complex Tanners’ Association, a leather complex and an IT park cannot exist side by side as leather is a polluting industry and IT requires a clean environment.

Among projects stuck before the LLRD was the 71 acre information technology (IT) sector SEZ at Panagarh in Bardhaman district 160km from Kolkata on National Highway 2. This SEZ was notified in August 2007 and was being developed by the Kolkata-based Sonthalia group. The IT Panagarh SEZ master planning was being done by Voyants Solutions, a Ramky Infrastructure group outfit, and project planning by IL&FS as technical consultants and equity partner in the project. Also stuck was the Sonthalia group’s 25 acre biotech SEZ at the same site for which land was in hand and formal approval received from the board of approvals (BOA) of the Union ministry of commerce (MoC).

The Panagarh biotech SEZ demand study was done by Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj while IL&FS was the technical advisor and equity partner. Sonthalia group recently proposed a third, 25-acre, SEZ dedicated to solar energy also at Panagarh, after acquiring land for the project. Application for approval had been filed with BOA-MoC, backed by a recommendation from the state department of information technology. The Sonthalia group was also developing two SEZs in the Rajarhat area, just east of Kolkata’s city limits. DLF Ltd, the country’s largest real estate company, had recently approached the Government for de-notifying four IT/ITES SEZs. The SEZs are in Orissa, Gujarat, West Bengal and Haryana. The de-notification has reportedly been sought in view of the falling demand in the IT and BPO industry. “It is due to the global slowdown and less demand for IT and BPO space. It has nothing to do with cash crunch. In other cases, whatever DLF has constructed so far has already been pre-leased, and so in IT there is no point in going ahead if the demand has slumped,” DLF said.

News Published Under:   Kolkata, Special Economic Zones |

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