Bengal to scrap Adani deal, float fresh tender for Tajpur deep-sea port project

Kolkata: The Bengal government has decided to initiate a fresh tendering process for the Tajpur deep-sea port, effectively scrapping its previous agreement with the Adani Group. The decision to float a fresh tender for Tajpur sea port was taken at the Cabinet meeting held last Monday. The state government had earlier agreed to hand over a “letter of intent” to Adani Group but it was cancelled following the recent decision in the state Cabinet meeting.

A notification was issued on Tuesday in this regard. The Mamata Banerjee government has ended its four-year association with the Adani Group for the project. According to a senior official, the decision to issue a fresh tender for Tajpur port invariably means that the earlier agreement will be null and void. In November 2023 the state government had announced that it would open a fresh tender for the Rs 25,000-crore project but did not announce any decision to scrap the first tender process completely. The state government later clarified that Adani Group was still involved in the project. It was stated that requisite permission for the port was sought from the Union ministries of defence, shipping, external affairs and home affairs. Only the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had given a conditional security clearance and certain observations were also made in this regard. As there was no significant progress, the state had earlier indicated that it would take a legal view.

In February this year, the Bengal Chief Minister had stated that Tajpur port will come up. “The tendering process will be looked at by the state Finance department. We are taking legal opinion on the tendering process,” Banerjee had said in February. It was learnt that the Adani Group failed to fulfil the conditions after necessary permissions were sought from various Central agencies. Hence, the state government has decided to scrap the agreement with the Adani Group. The State cabinet in September 2021 approved a proposal by the Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) to set up a deep sea port at Tajpur. Initially, there were two bidders for the first deep-sea project in the state — Adani Ports and JSW Infrastructure. The final day for bidding was March 14, 2021. In 2022, Karan Adani, director of APSEZ, was handed over the letter of intent for the port.