Buddhadeb seeks to resolve Videocon land issue

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is making all out efforts to resolve the land issue for the Dhoots of Videocon group. His focus is on the group���s two proposed projects - the IT SEZ in North Bengal and the Rs 20K crore integrated steel plant in Jamuria in Asansol, which will include a captive power plant.

On Tuesday, Videocon group chairman Venugopal Dhoot called on the chief minister at Writers��� Buildings to review the status of his projects in the state and also draw his attention to the land-related problems.

Talking to reporters after his hour-long session with the CM, Mr Dhoot said: "The IT SEZ at Dabgram in Jalpaiguri district will require 25 acres. Some problem had arisen regarding that plot which has been sorted out at today���s meeting with CM." Mr Dhoot also met state urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya to resolve the land related glitches.

A senior official in the CM���s secretariat said nearly 24.22 acres had been acquired for Videocon���s IT venture. "Another one acre needs to be acquired for which some problem had cropped up related to the Land Ceiling Act. It has been decided to sort out the issue by the month end," the official added.

The Videocon group has also asked the CM to allocate fresh land for its proposed integrated steel and captive power plants in the state since Coal India Limited (CIL) has said the present location at Jamuria has coal reserves.

"We require 4,200 acres for the project. Of this, 3,000 acres are to be bought by us directly. Coal India has told us that land cannot be allocated as it has coal seams. Accordingly, we have proposed a reallocation of the site or realignment of land for the project," Mr Dhoot said.

Mr Dhoot said the CM had assured him of taking up the matter with the Centre for an early solution. "We are also in touch with CIL authorities over the matter. The Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) has been asked to identify the land containing coal seams," he said.

Incidentally, the Videocon group had inked an MoU with the West Bengal government in October 2007 for setting up a 3 million tonne integrated steel plant and a 1,200 mw power plant in the Jamuria-Barabani area. The total project cost for the steel and power plants was estimated at Rs 20,000 crore.

Mr Dhoot said the blueprints of the integrated steel plant and the captive power station were ready. The power plant would come up first.