Tata Motors on Friday told the high court here that the West Bengal Industrial Corporation (WBIDC) had agreed to an indemnity clause for any loss incurred by the company.
The amount would be equivalent to the expenditure incurred, Tata Motors counsel Samaraditya Pal said on the first day of hearing on the writ petition filed by the company, challenging the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011. The indemnification clause was part of the lease agreement signed by Tata Motors and WBIDC in 2007.
The petition has pegged losses at Rs 1,400 crore, which includes investment on the ground and other costs such as value of land rights and goodwill, transportation, mothballing the entire plant that needed more than 3,300 large trucks to carry other materials, rehabilitation and resettlement, cost of retaining the land till date and the security.
In a letter to WBIDC in September 2010, Tata Motors had mentioned a sunk cost of Rs 440 crore and another Rs 170 crore on account of vendors.
A clause in the agreement also says any legal proceedings are initiated in respect of the acquisition of the land in which the lessee is a party and has to defend proceedings and the lessor shall reimburse all the costs, charges and expenses incurred by the lessee in defending such proceedings.
Pal on Friday read out several clauses of the agreement in the court including the sops the state government had agreed to. The West Bengal government had matched the fiscal concessions the company was getting in Uttarakhand for the Nano project.
