Bengal seeks Rs 500 crore for CIWTC

The West Bengal government has asked for a Rs 500 crore package as the pre-condition for taking over the ailing Central Inland Water Transport Corporation (CIWTC).

The state has communicated its position to the ministry of shipping. It has also pointed out that CIWTC must reduce its workforce drastically to become viable.

Sumantra Choudhury, secretary of transport with the West Bengal government, said CIWTC could be run with 100-odd people. "The company has 1,298 workers. A voluntary retirement scheme has to be worked out for 1200 people," he said.

He said the Centre was talking about a Rs 250 crore package spread over a period of three years for the ailing company.

"The state government wants Rs 250 crore more for another three years. If the Centre agrees, the state will consider the case as CIWTC has future potential," Choudhury told Business Standard .

The company has to pay a monthly salary bill of Rs 1.7 crore. It posted a turnover of Rs 13 crore and an operational loss of Rs 17.5 crore. It has accumulated losses of over Rs 200 crore.

The Centre was unwilling to sustain the company, which was headquartered in Kolkata with operations in the east and north eastern regions.

CIWTC was a drain on resources as it could not show any satisfactory result even after a Rs 140 crore restructuring programme was announced in 2001.

However, the benefits of transfer of ownership from the Centre to the state was unclear.

"The ministry of shipping has the core competence in the subject. The West Bengal government has nothing to do with it," experts said. The agency responsible for creating infrastructure for CIWTC was the Inland Waterways Authority of India, also under the shipping ministry.

It had two operating divisions ""a river service division and Rajabagan Dockyard. The Centre had postponed its earlier plan to disinvest the river service division, which was in the business transportation of cargo through inland waterways by barges.