Two projects planned by West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC), including one auto-component park and a logistics hub, were facing uncertainty as developers appeared to have backed out.
WBIIDC had tied up with realty, retail and logistics firm K Raheja Corporation to develop a 50 acre logistics park in West Bengal that would focus chiefly on demand from the automobile and retail segments.
WBIIDC had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in mid-2008 to purchase land for the K Raheja project.
"The Rahejas have not shown any further interest in the project. So, we have not identified any land as well. They required around 50 acres near Kolkata", said S Chaudhuri, chief executive officer, WBIIDC.
With the exit of the Nano plant from Singur, these projects which bet on the small car appeared to be in doldrums.
Sources in the Raheja venture, on the contrary, said that WBIIDC could not commit on providing land for the project, especially after the Singur land row.
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"The Kolkata project has been shelved", said a senior official at K Raheja Corp who did not wish to be identified.
He added that the project was banking on logistics demand created by the Tata Motors Nano project and that the company was looking to set up the park off the National Highway-2 near Singur.
Raheja Corp had entered into a 50:50 joint venture with US based realty developer ProLogis for developing similar logistics parks in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
"ProLogis itself is not in good shape", alleged Chaudhuri.
He admitted he was not very optimistic about the project taking off soon.
When contacted, a ProLogis spokesperson stated, "Due to the global financial crisis and impact on the availability of capital, ProLogis has announced a plan to strengthen its balance sheet and reduce debt. One of the elements of this plan is to halt all new development for the foreseeable future. As a result, ProLogis will not move forward on any new development transactions in India. In addition, we are in discussions about the future of our joint venture partnership with K Raheja Corporation established last year."
Sources at Raheja Corp admitted that work had been slowed down at most of the logistics projects in the country with ProLogis.
However, Rahejas were in the process of acquiring land in Gujarat to build residential and commercial complexes in addition to logistics parks and support infrastructure near Sanand.
Another WBIIDC project, a planned automobile component park over 500 acres at Gupatmani in West Midnapore district, appeared to be stalled as well.
No autocomponent manufacturer had yet approached the corporation for investment in the project zone.
Bengal had only one automobile plant, owned by Hindustan Motors and making around 12,000 Ambassador cars per year, at Uttarpara, 15km north of Kolkata on the west bank of the river Hoogly.
The Tata Nano project was expected to create demand for autocomponents as the company had targeted an annual production of over 2.5 lakh cars per year.
"We have started purchasing land for the autocomponent park. Over 100 acres is vested land", Chauduri said.
He claimed that the project could take shape in around three years.
WBIIDC had entered into a joint venture with Bengal Srei Infrastructure Development Ltd, called Bengal Integrated Auto Park Ltd, to execute the Guptamoni project.