http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091007/jsp/frontpage/story_11585566.jsp
The Telegraph, 7 Oct 2009
Changi sends alert on land fee thorn
Calcutta, Oct. 6: Changi Airport of Singapore has expressed concern
over at least two administrative issues related to land for the
proposed airport city at Andal in Burdwan.
The subjects vexing Changi, a partner in the Rs 10,000-crore project, are not the usual protests against land acquisition but the
quantum of an administrative fee and a loan promised to relocate
high-tension power lines from the area earmarked for the airport city.
“These issues could materially impact the project’s viability and development plan unless sorted out at the earliest,” according to a letter from Changi to the local developers, Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL).
The Telegraph has learnt that Eugene Gan, the deputy CEO of Changi
Airport International, wrote to BAPL chief executive Subrata Paul on
August 25, raising the two issues.
The developer, in turn, has written to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, requesting his intervention.
An element of politics also appears to be at play. Burdwan is the cradle of industry minister Nirupam Sen, while the
department dealing with one of the issues raised by Changi is headed by
Abdur Rezzak Mollah, the Bengal industrialisation policy critic
recently at the centre of the Vedic Village controversy.
Soon after Changi joined BAPL as
equity shareholder in July this year, the Singapore investor felt that
the administrative cost demanded by the land department was high. Administrative cost covers expenses for official purposes to carry out land acquisition, excluding the actual land price.
The investors want this cost to be lowered from 10 per cent to 1 per
cent of the land price. At 10 per cent, they will have to pay Rs 20-25
crore for the first-phase requirement of 2,182 acres. The entire
project will need 3,100 acres.
The investors have offered to cover the actual administrative cost, which they think will be much less than that at 10 per cent.
The company feels that 10 per cent is appropriate when the size of the
land is small but there should be a staggered rate for large
acquisitions.
Sources said the commerce and industry department had mooted slab-based
administrative charges, proposing 1 per cent for acquisition over 1,000
acres. However, the land department has not agreed to the proposal, the sources added.
Mollah, the land minister, today said he
personally had not received any request for reduction of the charge.
“It has not reached my table. I don’t know,” he said.
For BAPL, the land acquisition has been relatively trouble-free so far.
The company is offering land for land, annuity, cash and vocational
training.
The other issue is the delay in sanctioning a Rs 50-crore soft loan to relocate high-tension power lines.
BAPL had requested the state government to bear the cost, citing the
airport city as a public infrastructure project, but the government did
not agree. As a compromise, the government offered the loan which
should be returned in six years.
Although the loan was sanctioned in February, it has not been disbursed yet for some unexplained reason.
Partho Ghosh, BAPL director, said the company was hopeful of a speedy resolution.
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This is a repeat of GIC's experience in Suzhou Industrial Park - when it was over confident of its relationship with the Central Government, and neglected to build ties at the local provincial level and to understand the local provincial laws that may not necessarily mirror that of the Federal Law.
Someone has not been paying attention to history lessons.
probably GIC mindset of the world is that mirror of singapore.
they just cant think out of the box and too eager to dump their money overseas without knowing a great deal of domestic politics.
why not dump the money into local SME and make them bigger.