The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (SIPCOT) under the Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday cancelled 71.34 acres of land allotted for a manufacturing facility of Coca-Cola in Erode district of the state, citing non-compliance of terms and conditions of allotment order and the lease deed. While the government has put the blame on company for delaying the launch of project, Coca-Cola said that it was nothing but “unforeseen pressures and delays” in getting various clearances that led to the delay and clarified that they have already written to the government to refund the entire money they have paid so far. The government order, dated April 20, issued by the SIPCOT managing director R Selvaraj had informed the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL) that the plot allotment had been cancelled. It was on June 21, 2013, SIPCOT allotted the land first and after two amendments in the agreement, a lease deed was executed and registered finally by HCCBPL on January 23, 2014. The proposed project on the allotted land was to set up a green-field state-of-the art bottling plant at a cost of Rs 500 crore in 2014. An official statement from the company said they had taken all steps to start construction on the allotted land. “However, the project was delayed due to unanticipated, outside pressures,” it said, citing the delay in getting pre-requisite approvals and permissions on a draft copy of the ‘Water Agreement’ to procure water from Tirupur Area Development Corporation Limited (NTADCL), laying of water line from the SIPCOT entrance to the allotted site for which the company had already made the payment and approval for laying an effluent transfer line. Coca-Cola said that without these clearances and approvals, they were unable to apply for ‘Consent to Establish’ and start construction work on the site. “Despite sending repeated reminders to SIPCOT there has been no progress. These inordinate delays, coupled with local activism against the project, could not have been foreseen nor prevented by us,” the company said. The ruling AIADMK was also under the pressure of protests from local residents and farmers fearing groundwater depletion and pollution of water resources.
