Thaindian News

Kolkata, March 18 (IANS) West Bengal is yet to receive written approval from the central government on a chemical hub project that was verbally cleared early February, a minister said here Wednesday.
“Though the cabinet has approved this project, we haven’t got any papers yet from the centre,” the state’s Industry and Commerce Minister Nirupam Sen said in his reply to a question in the state assembly.

The centre’s Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers approved the proposal in the state, Sen said.

The petroleum, chemical and petrochemical investment region (PCPIR) will comprise the chemical hub at Nayachara island and the industrial units in the adjoining Haldia region.

Responding to a question from the leader of opposition Partho Chattopadhyay, Sen said 40 percent of the project area will be used for petrochemical industry and infrastructure will be developed in the rest.

The chemical hub project is a joint venture, in which the state government holds 49 percent stake, with the controlling 51 percent held by a consortium comprising Indian developer Unitech and two Indonesian firms - the Salim Group and Universal Success.

The state government submitted a PCPIR application to the centre a year ago. There were several rounds of meetings with the chemicals and fertiliser ministry in the last one year. Sen said the state government provided all clarifications sought by the ministry.