French Ambassador flags ‘significant difficulties’ in securing land for project in Rajasthan, Congress slams BJP govt

He has also alleged that RIICO has proposed the allocation of land “at a price that appears substantially higher than what had been discussed, while also extending the proposed timelines for land allotment, with completion now anticipated by end of December 2026.”

He said these conditions “place the project at serious risk and create uncertainty regarding its implementation, despite the company’s continued commitment to invest in the state of Rajasthan.”

The Ambassador has now requested another meeting with the CM to “discuss the challenges that they are facing and identify a mutually satisfactory way forward.”

Last month, reporting from Paris, Reuters had said that Soufflet Malt, the world’s largest malt producer, “will invest 100 million Euros (approx Rs 1,092 crore) in a new production facility in India”, while quoting the company as saying that it plans to capture rising beer demand in emerging markets.

The report had said that the facility would produce 1,10,000 metric tonnes of malt annually in its first phase, which is scheduled for completion by early 2028.

“We have countries in which there are decreases (in beer consumption), but if there is one country where we see really a big growth coming, it’s India,” the report had quoted Soufflet Malt Chief Executive Jorge Solis from India, where he was travelling with French President Emmanuel Macron on a three-day visit to the country.

Rajasthan Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, Shikhar Agrawal, who is also the RIICO Chairperson, did not respond to calls seeking a comment.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said that the letter “has laid bare the true picture of Rajasthan’s investment policy. If investment isn’t materialising on the ground even after negotiations at the Chief Minister’s level, it raises a serious question about the system’s true intentions.”

“Even after agreements were signed at the summit and positive discussions with Chief Minister Bhajan Lal ji, if a foreign company is still wandering around for land, what does that mean? Who exactly is sitting on the files, holding things up? On whose signal is the investment being stalled?” Dotasra said.

“There are dozens of such entrepreneurs who, after signing agreements at the summit, want to set up industries on the ground and provide employment, but they’re left wandering for land,” he alleged, saying that it is so because instead of direct access to the people in power, “things are moving through the routes of ‘commission agents’.”

Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully said, “The French Ambassador has now endorsed what I have been saying both inside and outside the Assembly… This entire episode tarnishes Rajasthan’s image. Rising Rajasthan has, in effect, become the Joke of Rajasthan.”