SAIL in race for some Tata Motors' Singur land

The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is believed to be eyeing a part of the 997 acre land in Singur, which was leased to Tata Motors for a plant to produce the Nano car and which the company has been ordered to vacate by the Calcutta High Court.

The state-owned steel maker is considering setting up a railway coach making facility, among other works, in the state as part of its ambitious diversification plans and has initiated talks with the West Bengal government, state government officials told DNA Money.

SAIL chairman C S Verma, in fact, held closed-door parleys with chief minister Mamata Banerjee on September 10 to discuss the projects, the officials said, adding, Singur was one of the sites discussed.

Interestingly, this meeting took place before the Calcutta High Court approved the state government’s move to take back the leased land from Tata Motors by enacting a legislation. The court on September 28 approved the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, enacted specifically to wrest control of the land leased to Tata Motors and its vendors and even directed the district magistrate of Hooghly to ensure transfer of land to the state government in two months.

SAIL officials, however, refused to comment on the development, considering the sensitivities involved.

Besides, Tata Motors still has an option to move court against the September 28 order —- the judge, in fact, kept the application of the order on hold till November 2 to allow the parties to appeal.

Meanwhile, SAIL is going ahead with another project in the state, at Kulti, for manufacturing railway wagons, for which it had earlier appointed Gurgaon-based RITES as a consultant. Kulti, incidentally, houses the country’s oldest steel plant, promoted by Indian Iron and Steel Co but now owned by SAIL.

For its latest proposal to make electric multiple units, metro rail coaches and also track-laying works, SAIL has sounded Banerjee, whose party Trinamool Congress controls the railway ministry, to consider two sites — Singur and Kancharapa.

SAIL, which is already involved in manufacturing rails, has been eyeing opportunities in track-laying and renewal based on the railway ministry’s stated ambition of renewing 1,000 km of tracks every year and creating dedicated freight corridors.

According to state government officials, SAIL is willing to take possession of about 300 acres at Singur for the coach factory if Banerjee agrees.

That shouldn’t be difficult to get considering Banerjee has said on several occasions that she is ok with any proposal for industry in Singur from anybody including the Tatas if it is restricted to 600 acre and excludes about 400 acre, which she claims were taken away forcefully by the Left Front government from farmers. The chief minister has even said that if no viable proposal comes, she would try to set up a project of the Railways.

For now, it all depends on the Tatas’ next move — whether they appeal the high court order or move the Supreme Court.