Bengal yet to get food unit plan from ITC

ITC would require 60-100 acres for the manufacturing unit.

The state government's horticulture and food processing department was yet to receive any formal proposal from ITC Ltd for its planned potato based foods manufacturing unit in West Bengal, said a top bureaucrat of the horticulture and food processing department, the nodal government agency for setting up private food processing units in the state.

Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on Indo-Italian workshop on trade and investments, Atanu Purkayastha, secretary of the horticulture and food processing department of the state, said, "We have not yet received any formal application from ITC for a unit. There were informal discussions though."

ITC would require 60-100 acres for the manufacturing unit.

The proposal would have to be sent thorough the state horticulture food processing department to the land and land reform department for land acquisition.

ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar had recently said the company was unable to start an agri-cum-food project as the state was yet to provide land, while Orissa had offered land for the project. He had mentioned that ITC had discussed the matter with West Bengal chief minister Budhdhdeb Bhattacharjee two years ago.

Deveshwar had said, ITC was willing to add West Bengal in its e-chaopal, provided it got land to set up a snacks manufacturing unit in the state.

"Creating an e-Chaupal network with farmers will not be viable without setting up a manufacturing unit here", Deveshwar said. "We are keen to invest in West Bengal and would wait for some more time to get the desired land," he added.

"In accordance with advice from the chief minister's office, ITC has signed an MoU with the West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) for facilitation of land acquisition for the project," ITC's official spokesperson said.

He declined to comment on the proposed location of the project.