West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that the state government will "dissolve" the letter of intent (LoI) that was handed over to Gautam Adani-controlled Adani Ports last year to develop the Tajpur deep sea port.
She said that her government will soon reopen the tender process inviting fresh bids for the Rs 25,000-crore Tajpur deep sea port project, India Today reported on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, CM Banerjee speaking at the Bengal Global Business Summit said the state government is working on the fresh tender price.
“There is a proposed deep sea port at Tajpur. That is ready. You can participate in the tender. This will attract an investment of $3 billion or Rs 25,000 crore ” Banerjee said on Tuesday.
In March 2022, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone had emerged as the highest bidder in a tender floated by the government ahead of Sajjan Jindal-promoted JSW Infrastructure.
On October 12, 2022, Karan Adani, son of group founder Gautam Adani and CEO of APSEZ, came to Calcutta to accept the LoI from the Bengal government. The project also involved the establishment of a new port and an adjacent industrial zone.
The proposed port in Tajpur, which is around 170 km from Kolkata has a deep draft of 12.1 metres and is expected to create 25,000 jobs directly besides indirect jobs which would touch a lakh, the state government had said last year.
Billionaire Gautam Adani had attended the Bengal Global Business Summit 2022, following which the deal was fixed. Gautam Adani, who was the star attraction of the last summit, had promised an investment of Rs 10,000 crore in the state in sectors of port infrastructure, data centres and undersea cables, warehouses and logistics parks.
The government is yet to sign a formal concession agreement with the conglomerate. Under the project, the group was supposed to develop the greenfield port on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis.
A close source to Banerjee told The Telegraph said the state government did not want to take the risk due to some clauses in the project. “The Centre’s clearance for the Tajpur project has a clause that says that it can go through if there is nothing adverse in it. This means the Centre is putting the onus and risk of implementing the project with the Adani group on us. Why should we take the risk?” the source told the newspaper.
The Economic Review for the year 2023-24 tabled by the West Bengal government in the Assembly earlier this year in February pointed out that the LOI has been issued for development of the Tajpur deep sea port.
The seventh edition of the BGBS saw the presence of prominent industrialists in the country, including Mukesh Ambani chairman of Reliance Industries, Energy baron Sanjeev Goenka and Wipro’s Rishad Premji. The absence of the Adani Group from the flagship summit had raised questions about their role in the Tajpur port project.
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