Chief Minister Mamata Benerjee on Wednesday said that the West Bengal government is seeking a legal opinion on the Tajpur deep-sea port project that was initially awarded to the Adani Group. The Tajpur port project is already happening, she added.
Responding to media queries on whether the contract with Adani was being cancelled and there would be re-tendering, she said, “We are taking a legal opinion on this. We are waiting for the legal opinion”.
In 2023, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee made a surprise announcement at the Bengal Global Business Summit, stating that her government would reopen the tender process seeking fresh bids for the Rs 25,000-crore Tajpur deep sea port project.
The move came a year after a Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed between the Government of West Bengal and Adani Port. The Chief Minister’s remarks fuelled speculations about the fate of the project that the Adani group had intended to develop in 2022.
The LoI was handed over to Adani Ports CEO Karan Adani by Banerjee in Kolkata in October 2022. This was done two months after industrialist Gautam Adani attended the Bengal Global Business Summit 2022 and announced investments worth Rs 10,000 crore.