ITC's Rs 15,000-crore industrial proposals in West Bengal have been abandoned for the non-availability of land, ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar declared.
Talking to mediapersons in the city, Deveshwar alleged that the required land could not be acquired for the ITC to set up hotels in Kolkata and Siliguri and they could not wait further. They have now decided to shift the ITC hotel proposals to UP, Gujarat and elsewhere.
Deveshwar said they were planning to invest about Rs 15,000 crore in West Bengal during the next few years on several industrial schemes, for which at least 1,000 acres of land was needed.
But in the wake of bad experience in obtaining about 100 acres for hotels, they would now be abandoning all new industrial proposals in the state.
"After all, industries cannot be built in the air," ITC chairman remarked, reminding Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's industrial lessons to Mamata Banerjee and others, who were agitating against the government's land acquiring policy for the industries.
Deveshwar alleged that ITC officials moved from door to door at Writers Buildings with their new industrial proposals, but in vain. The proposals were rejected on one pretext or the other.
Tribune News Service
