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Informist, Monday, Jun. 8, 2026

 

 

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--W Bengal govt source: Mulling to start talks with Tata Motors for car plant
--West Bengal govt source: Plan to revive Tata Motors' failed Singur project
--W Bengal govt source: Mulling plan to bring in more invest from Tata group
--W Bengal govt source: Need reforms to attract invest from Tata group cos
--W Bengal govt source: Open to talks with Tata group cos for Singur project

 

By Avishek Rakshit

 

KOLKATA – The West Bengal government is considering initiating discussions with the Tata group to renew its interest in reviving the abandoned industrial project in Singur in the Hooghly district, sources at the state secretariat told Informist. It is aimed at reviving large-scale projects and changing the state's image for industrialists as an investment-friendly one.

 

Although the framework of a potential discussion is being worked out, a revised land policy and a new industrial policy are the pre-requisites before any proposal to the Tata group may be placed, a source at the state secretariat said. Legal opinion on the revival of the project in Singur is also being sought. 

 

The sources at the state secretariat did not wish to be named as the state government has issued a circular barring all government employees and officers from interacting with the media without prior permission.

 

Bharatiya Janta Party leaders said that under the previous government's policy, private companies interested to invest in the state were supposed to directly negotiate with the landowners. This, they said, created too much hurdle and discouraged investment as private companies were not able to go door to door and negotiate for land parcels. Land ownership in West Bengal is extremely fragmented. As a result, a change in land policy is being conceived by the West Bengal government, where the state may play a role in facilitating land for private industries. 

 

However, West Bengal Industrial Development Corp.--an undertaking of the state's industry, commerce and enterprises ministry--maintains and manages land parcels and modules which are readily available for industrialists to set up operations. 

 

One of the sources at the state secretariat said that senior economists, bureaucrats, policy makers and senior industry leaders are being consulted to formulate the renewed land and industrial policy to attract private investment in the state. 

 

Another source at the state secretariat said that while the state government wants Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. or Tata Motors Ltd. to revive its car making factory in Singur, it is also open to other big-ticket investments from any other company of the Tata group for any other project in the same area. In October, Tata Motors Ltd. demerged its passenger vehicles business into Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles. Tata Motors now focusses on commercial vehicles. 

 

Back in May 2006, Tata Motors, which was then a unified entity, had announced its plans to set up the 'Nano' passenger car making factory across 995 acres of land in Singur. However, it abandoned the nearly completed project on October 2008 under "heightened level of agitation and hostility by the opposition parties led by Mamata Banerjee." Later, capitalising on her opposition towards acquisition of farm land, the Trinamool Congress came to power and Banerjee became the chief minister in 2011. She lost her chair in May 2026 to the BJP. 

 

BJP leaders, including the party's state president and Rajya Sabha member, Samik Bhattacharya termed the ouster of Tata Motors as a pivotal event which changed the image of West Bengal and sent "wrong message" to industrialists. 

 

The second source at the state's secretariat said that the state government is now trying to change the "state's image" in eyes of industrialists as an investment friendly destination and revive large-scale industry in West Bengal. 

 

For West Bengal, Singur was symbolic. Together with Nandigram in the Purba Medinipur district, the agitations in Singur led to the downfall of Left Front's 34-year rule and brought Banerjee to power. But at the same time, according to the BJP and Left Front parties, the political upheaval also changed the viewpoint of investors and industrialists towards the state as Tata Motors was forced to abandon the Nano project when it was nearing commissioning. 

 

Hence, the state government is looking at reviving industrial projects from the same town--Singur--with the same Tata group, to send out messages to industrialists to renew their confidence in making big ticket investments in the state. 

 

However, even after Tata Motors' exit from Singur which then left late Ratan Tata, former chairman emeritus of several Tata group companies distraught, the Tata group companies have been investing in West Bengal and scaling up operations.

 

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., which employs more than 54,000 IT professionals in Kolkata, is setting up another 20-acre campus in the Bengal Silicon Valley Tech Hub in New Town. Tata Metaliks Ltd. also invested INR 6 billion towards capacity expansion in 2022 and later merged with Tata Steel Ltd. The group's hospitality wing under Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. is also setting up more hotels across the state under management contracts and Titan Co. Ltd. set up jewellery manufacturing operations at the Gems and Jewellery Park in the Howrah district. 

 

Nevertheless, attracting Tata group companies to the abandoned car factory site in Singur may involve too many legal tangles. In 2016, the Supreme Court held that land acquired for the car factory was illegal and it ordered the state government to return the land to 9,117 landowners. Then in 2023, an arbitral tribunal awarded INR 7.7 billion compensation with interest to Tata Motors to be paid by West Bengal Industrial Development Corp. for the abandoned project. In May this year, the Calcutta High Court refused to grant a stay on the compensation to Tata Motors after West Bengal Industrial Development Corp. moved court.

 

At 1206 IST, shares of Tata Motors PV traded over 2% lower at INR 389.05 and shares of Tata Motors traded slightly down at INR 366.60 on the National Stock Exchange. End 

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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