Singur may be grabbing headlines, but it isn’t the only project where the West Bengal government has ‘landed’ itself in a mess. Another storm is developing just 20 km away from Singur, where DLF is growing annoyed with its proposed Dankuni township.
The real estate giant has threatened to pull out of the thirty three thousand crore rupees project since no progress has been made in the case for months and the company is yet to get ownership of the land. State urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya confirmed that DLF had increased pressure on the government.
“The project is not making any headway and DLF is telling us that they’ll pull out if the situation continues,” he said, pointing out that with the entire district administration in Hooghly focusing on Singur, hardly any other work is getting done.
“There’s also opposition to the Dankuni project at the local level. It would have generated huge employment in the state. We are still trying to convince DLF,” the minister said. The Dankuni township is one of the biggest real estate projects in the country covering over 4,840 acres to be built through public-private-partnership over ten years. It is also the biggest PPP project in the country.
The company has already paid two hundred seventy crore rupees in advance to the government, which is supposed to hand over the land after procuring it.