The stalemate over the Railways’ proposed coach factory at Singur is likely to continue with the West Bengal government on Tuesday indicating that it will wait for a firm proposal from the Rail Board before approaching its tenants for terminating the contract covering 997 acres at the former production site of the Tata Nano.
Incidentally, the Rail Board, which is the apex decision-making body of the Railways, had earlier said it will submit its blueprint for the proposed facility once the state government had recovered the land for the lessees, which include Tata Motors and automobile components manufacturers.
“We need to have a concrete idea of what the Railways would like to undertake at Singur before we can terminate the lease. It will be premature to discuss the matter with them (tenants) without this proposal,” West Bengal Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti said here today at a meeting at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
According to Chakrabarti, this proposal should include the the exact details of the proposed project, including the size of the land required and the mode of execution.
When questioned about the Railways' tacit demand that the disputed portion of the Singur plot be returned to farmers before the coach factory is constructed on the remaining area, he said that the state would have to abide by the Supreme Court rulings on the matter.
“As far as my understanding goes, land once acquired cannot to be returned. We have taken legal consultation and there is an apex court ruling that indicates this. But I can't comment on what the Railways can do,” Chakrabarti said.
Railways Minister, and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, has said that the undisputed part of the Singur plot amounts to about 400 acres, a figure that the government has not agreed to.
As for compensating the Tata's and other firms for the money spent by them to construct physical infrastructure at Singur, Chakrabarti said that he was unaware of this factor.
It remains unclear that if the Tata Motors and others are to vacate the erstwhile factory site, whether the state government or the firm taking over the plot will compensate the former tenants.
