Proposed SEZ for chemical hub to come up:Buddha

Kolkata, Feb 22 (UNI) Notwithstanding a still raging Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today asserted that the proposed SEZ for a chemical hub was sure to come up in the state.

''We have to set up the chemical hub and the SEZ will be set up.

We will decide where it will come up,'' he told reporters after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in Delhi cleared a 500 million dollar (Rs 2,250 crore) worth Foreign Direct Investment proposal from Indonesia-based Salim and Ciputra groups for developing infrastructure projects, including SEZs in West Bengal.

He said he was happy that the Centre had cleared the projects.

The proposed SEZ for a chemical hub, one of the eight to be set up across the country, will be developed by the Salim Group with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) being the anchor investor.

The proposed SEZ, earmarked to come up in Nandigram in East Midnapore district, however, ran into rough weather after violence broke out in the area with the villagers being apprehensive of losing their hearth and livelihood.

Putting up a stiff opposition to any move to acquire the land, opposition parties and a section of dissident CPI(M) men grouped together denying the administration to run the writ and preventing outsiders from entering the area by digging up all the roads.

Four people were killed and scores of houses torched in bloody political clashes and the unrest continued to smoulder even though the state government assured that land would not be acquired without the people's consent.

However, with the situation spiralling to extremity, the ruling Left Front asked the government to go slow on the Nandigram project and strike a realignment in the Salim projects by putting the chemical hub in the last leg.

Finance Minister P Chidambaran said after the CCEA meeting that though the government had approved the boards proposal, involving FDI proposals exceeding Rs 600 crore, the exact nature of investment would depend on the agreement between the investors and the state government.

The project, approved on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, would have an Indian equity partner as well. The Salim group would have 40 per cent stake in the joint venture company.

UNI