Tata Motors to Receive Rs 766 Crore from Bengal for Singur Investment
The Bengal government has been ordered to pay Tata Motors a staggering sum of Rs 765.78 crore, along with an 11% interest from September 2016, for the closure of its Nano factory in Singur. This decision was made by a three-member Arbitral Tribunal, coming as a significant victory for the company.
Tata Motors released a statement to the National Stock Exchange, stating, “With regard to the automobile manufacturing facility at Singur (West Bengal), this is to inform that the aforesaid pending Arbitral proceedings before a three-member Arbitral Tribunal has now been finally disposed of by a unanimous Award dated October 30, 2023, in favour of TML whereby Tata Motors has been held to be entitled to recover from the respondent (WBIDC) a sum of Rs 765.78 crore with interest thereon @ 11% p.a. from September 1, 2016, till actual recovery thereof.”
The company also stated that they are entitled to recover an additional sum of Rs 1 crore from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) for the cost of the proceedings.
Back in 2008, Tata Motors had to abandon its plans for the Nano factory in Bengal and relocate it to Gujarat due to ongoing protests led by Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress. Upon assuming power, the Trinamool government offered alternative land to Tata Motors for the factory. However, the company declined the offer and instead requested a compensation of Rs 154 crore, which they had paid to the previous Left Front government to acquire the land.
In 2016, the Supreme Court deemed the Left Front government’s land acquisition in Singur as “grossly perverse and illegal” due to non-compliance with the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act. Tata Motors defended the acquisition, arguing that the government should not change its stance in the middle of a lawsuit simply because a different political party had come into power.
The Left Front had acquired agricultural land in Singur for the Nano factory, portraying the project as a catalyst for industrialization and economic growth in the state.
