West Bengal plans re-tendering Tajpur Port Project amid ongoing controversy

KOLKATA : West Bengal is looking for a fresh legal opinion on the proposed Tajpur Port, CM Smt Mamata Banerjee said, indicating that infrastructure project linked to the Adani Group may go for re-tender.

“The Tajpur project is already happening. Tendering will probably happen again as there is a dispute,” Banerjee said in her initial comments on the state budget on Wednesday.

After a competitive bidding in early 2022, the state had picked Adani Ports for the ₹25,000-crore port and industrial zone project and awarded a letter of intent in October that year to India’s largest private sector operator.

However, allegations of market manipulation and impropriety raised by US-based short seller Hindenburg rocked the Adani group in January 2023 and the political fallout cast a shadow on the Tajpur project.

Asked later if the Bengal government would cancel the LoI given to Adani, Banerjee clarified that a legal opinion is being sought. “The chief secretary would be able to comment. We are taking a legal opinion on this. We are waiting for a legal opinion,” she said.

Sources in the state secretariat suggested all options are on the table. “We are doing our own due diligence, whether we can take it forward or it is to be revisited. We will take a call in two to three weeks,” sources told The Telegraph.

Mixed signals

In the seventh edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit held in November 2023, chief minister Banerjee had invited investors to develop Tajpur, conceived as an alternative to Bengal’s Haldia and Calcutta ports that are unable to handle large ships due to low river draught.

“The proposed deep sea port at Tajpur – that is ready, you can participate in the tender. This will attract an investment of about $3 billion, or ₹25,000 crore,” Banerjee had said.

Within days, however, Bengal industry minister Shashi Panja clarified in Delhi that communication with the Adanis were on, indicating that the state was yet to scrap the Adani-won tender.

The state said certain clearances were required from four departments of the Union government such as home, external affairs, defence and shipping. The ministry of home affairs had given a conditional clearance and made certain observations, and clarifications were sought on