Nagpur: Land in Sindi Town, in the Wardha District, where the transportation minister Union Nitin Gadkari brings a multimodal logistics park and dry port, formerly the site for ambitious projects planned by other politicians nearly four decades ago.
The senior congress and parliamentary members for Wardha Vasant Sathe have deducted the main explosive factory on the same land.
This is to become a joint venture with a Swedish company, which traces its roots to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
Initially obtained by the State Industry and Investment Company (SICOM) for the explosive project, the land went to Metallics Gupta, a Nagpur company, in 2005, but was taken back by Sicom later.
Sicom has been tied with Nobel Dyno from Sweden to make detonators.
New company, Dyno India, was formed.
This project will never take off because of the high costs involved, said the source.
Sometimes in 2005, Sicom puts the land for auctioned.
The land parcel is more than 500 hectares bagged by the Nagpur Metallics Gupta company for RS1.75 Crore.
A year later, after changing guards in Sicom, it was realized that the value of land rights was not realized.
Metallics Gupta returned money and Sicom took back the land.
Gupta Metallics has a plan to establish a Ferro Alloy factory, multi-capital industrial warehouse, and prisoner power plants, and bio-mass-based power plants.
The company believes that it is the best level at that time, arriving in open competition.
The money remains in the Metallic Gupta balance sheet in the name Sicom, because the company still emphasizes claims on this land.
Twenty years down, land was handed over to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) to build a dry port.
At that time, Gadkari also held a shipping service in his first term as an Union minister.
The farmers whose land was taken by Sicom was initially paid for an increase, according to the latest benchmarks.
Now, even as a promoter Metallics Gupta continues to cry rotten, Gadkari has taken a project under the Authority of the Indian National Highway (NHAI).
It brings a dry port directly below the ministry again.
Gadkari was only left with the Ministry of Transportation in the second term.
This project has taken a recent rear seat in Gadkari’s second term.
Now, JV has formed between Nhai and JNPT.
The first has a 60% stake and will take further work.
Back in 2005, after the land was taken back, Metallics Gupta had planned legal action against Sicom.
“A petition was designed and we were preparing to move to court.
However, Sicom asked to enter the arbitration.
We asked the arbitration but Sicom did not start the process at all.
There has been no further development since then.
Because Sicom hasn’t advanced with arbitration, we have The right to approach the court, “said Vinod Tiwari, a director in Metallics Gupta.
Mahesh Gupta, who heads Metallic Gupta, told TI that the company had not taken legal action so far.
After the loan became NPA, Metallics Gupta assets were taken over by the asset reconstruction company.
Land movement – almost 4 decades ago, members of the Senior Congress Vasant Sathe planned to explosive plants on land in Sindhi in Wardha District – a planned joint venture with Swedish companies, which tracked its roots to Alfred Nobel, Inventor of Dynamite – State Industrial and Investment Corporation (Sicom) acquiring land that went to Metallics Gupta, a Nagpur company, in 2005 – Sicom took back the land – after 20 years, land was handed over to JNPT to build a dry port – now, the trade union of the Minister Nitin Gadkari has taken the project below NHAI – Multimodal logistics gardens and dry ports will be arranged on the ground