KOCHI: Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) CMD Jaiveer Srivastava has said that the company would not let go of the land in its possession for any purpose other than its own expansion.
Srivastava’s assertion comes against the backdrop of a comparison between the business FACT has managed to do and what the adjoining Cochin Special Economic Zone(CSEZ) has done, especially considering the land available with the two entities.
The 170-odd companies operating out of 105 acres of land at the CSEZ had posted a turnover of Rs 40,000 crore last year. In comparison, FACT, with 2,150 acres of land under its belt, recorded a turnover of only about Rs 300 crore in the last fiscal. FACT’s land bank is spread in two divisions - Kochi and Ambalamedu. Of this, around 750 acres are being utilised for plants/factories and other buildings.
The unutilised land in the possession of FACT is around 1400 acre. Of this, 71.5 acres of land was purchased by the company, which has total right only on the purchased land. The unutilised 1,400 acres of land on the Ambalamedu campus includes around 1,000 acres of natural forest with a water body in it. It is learnt that recently, the State Government brought to the attention of the Central Government the disproportionate land availability in and around Kochi, stressing the fact that corrections needed to be made so that further impetus could be given to the Prime Minister’s ‘Make In India’ programme. The case of the huge land banks held by FACT and HMT in Kochi, even as the promising CSEZ is languishing due to unavailability of land, was highlighted in the communication.
Srivastava, meanwhile, told ‘Express’ that the State Government could not raise such a demand. “The land in the possession of FACT is meant for future expansion of the company. Even the State Government is a partner in FACT’s expansion. A committee constituted by the Central Government will look into how the land held by FACT could be leveraged for the revival of the company,” Srivastava said.
“The Central Government is of the opinion that the company needs to find a sustainable way to survive,” he said, adding that the package announced by the Central Government would be cleared, but in a ‘different way’.
The committee comprises two experts; a senior official of the Department of Fertilisers; Principal Secretaries to the Government of Kerala, Revenue Department and the Industries Department; and the chairman and managing director of FACT.