India Investment Property » West Bengal

Government Will Acquire Land With The Consent Of The Owners

admin — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 11:37:13 +0000

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata’s threat to pull the Rs 1,500-crore Nano small-car project out of West Bengal in the face of violence and protests over farmland acquisition has deepened the gloom over the Left Front government’s industrialisation drive, with most of its larger and more ambitious infrastructure projects already on hold over land issues.
Just last week, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had indicated that the government has decided to stop work for the time being for the Salim Group’s proposed Barasat-Raichak Expressway. He had told a public meeting in north Bengal that, henceforth, the government would acquire land only with the consent of the owners.
The Salim Group and the state government had formed a special purpose vehicle, New Kolkata International Development Pvt Ltd, to build a clutch of industrial and infrastructure projects, the largest being around Nandigram, requiring a grand total of 28,500 acres.
The Nandigram chemical hub project had to be abandoned last year in the face of violent public protests. Now it has been shrunk to a location around the existing industrial town of Haldia, with the riverine island of Nayachar included.
The Salim group had earlier committed an investment of almost Rs 20,000 crore over a period of five years in West Bengal.
Next in the queue of casualties was the Rs 33,000 crore DLF township project in Dankuni , in Hooghly district-a public-private partnership project with the Kolkata Municipal Development Authority.
Touted as one of the largest real estate projects in the country, the township is proposed to be spread over 4,840 acres. It will have provision for both residential and industrial projects.
Protests over land acquisition have also put a question mark on the proposed projects like Baruipur and Kalyani townships. Almost 500 acres were acquired by KMDA for the Rs 400 crore project at Baruipur.
According to reports, 2,000 acres were to be acquired in Uluberia for a planned industrial development project. An industrial park over 1,325 acres was also proposed at Sankrail in Howrah. Proposed IT hubs in Kalyani, Durgapur and Haldia are also facing the heat of uncertainty.
The Left Front government’s position is that the state has very little barren land, just 1% of the total land area, and that some farmland will have to be acquired to re-industrialise the state. At present, around 100,000 acres will have to be acquired for the projects on the table. Against this, the total farmland in West Bengal is over 13,700,000 acres.

Mahindra Decides To Be Slow On Bengal SEZ Project

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:33:19 +0000

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has decided to go slow on its world city project in Bengal.
The conglomerate, with interests ranging from automobile and real estate to IT, financial services and infrastructure, had planned to invest Rs 4,000 crore in Bengal over the next few years to develop the 100-acre IT special economic zone (SEZ) and township.
M&M executive director Arun Nanda had met Bengal IT minister Debesh Das, chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb and tourism minister Manab Mukherjee in December 2007.
The world cities are integrated units which are divided into business and residential zones. They require anywhere between 100 acres and over 3,000 acres.
In Bengal, M&M looked beyond Calcutta to Kalyani and Siliguri for the township project. They have seen locations at Kalyani but thereafter there has been no response from them.
M&M, also known for developing destinations such as Munnar for tourism, is scouting for similar locations in the state. The company had also expressed interest in a hospitality project at New Town, Rajarhat.
The company’s IT arm, Tech Mahindra, is building the Bantala SEZ in over 12 acres and plans to employ 2,000 people in the first phase of 18 months.
M&M has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation to provide consultancy to the state government for setting up eco-friendly infrastructure in the Sunderbans.

UK’s Eredene Cap Picks Up 50% Stake In AILPL

admin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:15:40 +0000

UK-based Eredene Capital has picked up a 50% stake in Apeejay Infra-Logistics (AILPL), the infrastructure arm of Kolkata-based Apeejay Surrendra Group.

The group is setting up a state-of-the-art logistics park in Haldia in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district. Eredene Capital has invested Sterling Pound 5.25 million or Rs 42 crore to pick up the 50% AILPL stake. This was confirmed by Abdul Wahid, the new chief executive officer of AILPL.

Eredene Capital invests in infrastructure projects and in real estate development in India. It focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on logistics, distribution of warehouses and port services. Mr Wahid, who will be responsible for all infrastructure related activities of the Apeejay Surrendra group, has over 17 years of experience as a senior supply chain management professional.

Speaking to media, Mr Wahid said: “The Eredene group has picked up a 50% stake in APILPL at an investment of Rs 42 crore. The Eredene group has a crack team with core experience in real estate, infrastructure, ports and logistics and we see them as natural partners in the development project at Haldia. We look forward to working with them in this and other future projects as well.”

In fact, Eredene and the Apeejay Surrendra group have entered into an agreement whereby the former would be Apeejay’s exclusive partner for all infrastructure and logistics projects in nine eastern states of India.

The proposed logistics park at Haldia will be located 7 kms away from Haldia port. It will provide distribution, warehousing and transport services to industrial units located there. The park will have anicllary facilities such as commercial offices, hotels, shopping malls and light processing workshop.

The 72-acre plot for the Haldia project has already been specifically marked for industrial use by the Haldia Development Authority. The process of lease acquisition is on. The total cost for development of logistics at the park is Rs 192 crore.

Talking about funding of the project, Mr Wahid said it will be done through a mix of debt and equity. “An equity investment of sterling pound 10.5 million will be shared equally between Eredene and Apeejay Surrendra group. The balance will be funded through debt.”

“We are trying to give land to the Apeejay group as quickly as possible, so that they can start work at the site,” said PA Siddiqui, chief executive officer of Haldia Development Authority.

Five Million Tonnes Steel Plant In West Bengal

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:21:17 +0000

KOLKATA: JaiBalaji Steel, which is investing Rs. 16,000 crore to set up a five million tonnes steel plant in West Bengal, is set to begin construction by this year on its project located in Raghunathpur in Purulia, which is one of the backward districts in the country.
Addressing a press conference here, Aditya Jajodia, Chairman and Managing Director, said that in the first phase Rs. 5,000 crore would be invested to set up a two million tonne steel plant along with a one million tonne cement unit and a 400 MW power plant.
About 600 acres had already been acquired for the project, which needs a total of 3,800 acres of which 1,500 acres would be required in the first phase.
West Bengal Industrial Development Agency had already identified 1,200 acres. Company sources said that construction work may begin by the end of this year when physical possession of land was expected.
Regarding financial tie-up for this project, Mr. Jajodia said that for the first phase, there would be an equity component of Rs. 1,500 crore and a debt component of Rs. 3,500 crore. Besides steel, the plant would have a capacity for making three million tonnes of cement while generating 1,215 MW of power.
Mr. Jajodia said that the company clocked a turnover of Rs. 1,347 crore in 2007-08 against Rs. 1,073 crore the year before. The net profit shot up by 91 % to touch Rs. 118.80 core riding on the back of increased efficiencies and improved steel prices.

Energy Saving Technology In Siddha Group Project

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:39:52 +0000

The West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd (WBGEDCL) for the first time has tied-up with the real estate development company Siddha Group for transferring the information about energy saving in its forthcoming studio and serviced apartments project in Rajarhat, called Xanadu.

On 4th June S P Gon Choudhury, managing director of WBGEDCL said that the corporation would charge a insignificant fee for transferring the technology, but in future might was open to pick a equity as low as 2 % in the real estate projects seeking the technology.

S. Jain, joint managing director of the Siddha Group, said out of one hundred twenty apartments in the project, ten or so initially would be equipped with energy saving devices.
In addition to this clean technology, additional feature of this project will be general services like the eating area, club and gym.
Siddha Group would install solar thermal lightning system on a five hundred meter stretch between Xanadu and Siddha Pines, a new residential project by the group in the Rajarhat area.

Other features of the project included use of LED bulbs, solar home lighting system and rain water harvesting.

Salarpuria Plans Hotel In Rajarhat

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:44:28 +0000

Kolkata-based real estate developer Salarpuria Group will execute projects worth Rs 1,000 crore in West Bengal by 2010.

Mr. Rakesh Salarpuria, vice chairman of the Salarpuria Group, said that the expansion plans includes setting up a Novotel Hotel, promoted by international hospitality major, Accor Group, at Rajarhat. The investment in the project would be close to Rs 200 crore.

Other major investments of the company includes two IT special economic zones (SEZs) at Bantala 20km south-east of Kolkata, and Kalyani in Nadia district, 40km north-west of Kolkata.

He further said that the company has already received in-principle nod for the SEZ projects from the Central government. The SEZ in Kalyani would be spread over 250 acre.

Salarpuria did not mention the investment required to execute the project, as it is yet to acquire land for it. The investment at the Bantala SEZ, to be spread over 40 acre, will be close to Rs 400 crore.

He said that work would being in six month.