Tea Park stuck in rail sub-lease delay - Entrepreneurs wait for Northeast Frontier Railway's nod to land pact for setting up units

Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates Quality Control Laboratory at the Tea Park on
Tuesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Bireswar Banerjee, TT, Siliguri, Jan. 5: The Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority has said the North Bengal Tea Park is yet to be functional completely as the railways which owns the land where the facility has come up is delaying the sub-lease of the plots allotted to entrepreneurs.

The SJDA established the park on an 84-acre plot taken on lease for 30 years from the railways at New Jalpaiguri.

According to SJDA sources, 152 plots were allotted to entrepreneurs to set up units. While warehouses were supposed to come up on 75 plots, packaging and blending units are given 67 plots. Ten plots were allotted for auction offices and material manufacturing units. The Tea Board was provided with a 15-cottah plot where Quality Control Laboratory was inaugurated by the Union minister of state for commerce and industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, today.

"The SJDA was allowed to sub-lease the plots as per the agreement it signed with the railways. But the names of the sub-lease holders have to be approved by the railways. We had sent the sub-lease agreement to the railways and the same was returned with some corrections. We went through the changes, approved the document and sent it back to the railways for the final approval," said a senior official of the SJDA.

"We had sent the document in 2013 but the railways have not returned it till now. Although we have given possession to most of the investors, they are waiting for the sub-lease deed which needs to be signed," he added.

"Since 2013, we have made a number of communications with the railways and even the SJDA chairman and minister Gautam Deb had spoken to senior officials of the Northeast Frontier Railway. But nothing has changed so far," said an SJDA official.

Today, R. Vimla, the CEO of the SJDA, took up the matter with the additional secretary in the Union commerce and industry ministry during the laboratory's inauguration.

"The additional secretary was asking me about the park. I have explained to the official certain issues associated with the project," Vimla said when asked about the interaction.

However, a businessman who has taken a plot at the park said the matter was more complicated. "We have information that the SJDA had taken the land on lease without informing the railways about the proposal for the tea park. Even though funds have been sanctioned by the Centre for the park, the railways are yet to recognise the tea park. We apprehend that the railways have kept the sub-lease agreement on hold," said the businessman.

"Unless these issues are clarified or at least the sub-lease agreement is handed over to me, I feel it is not right to move ahead with the project," he added.

A senior official of the NFR said he didn't have a proper idea of the issue. "I will have to talk to my superiors to know more about the agreement with the SJDA," he said.