Worried by Bengal’s industrial climate, Kolkata based Paharpur Group has decided to shift its cooling tower project to Gujarat. After Tata Nano and Bharat Forge this is the third big-ticket investment Bengal has lost to Narendra Modi.

What’s more, the Gujarat government allotted land for the project in just seven days, say company officials.

Union trouble has dogged the Paharpur Group’s plant at Bhasa in South 24-Parganas for the last one year, with the Trinamool Congress trade arm, INTTUC, on the warpath for higher wages. The state government tried to break the deadlock after getting an SOS from the firm but failed. The company issued a suspensionof-work notice six months ago. The government again intervened in November but has yet to make any headway.

Worried by the uncertainty, the group—whose original unit is in Kolkata’s Taratala—decided not to set up its new cooling tower project in Bengal. It approached the Gujarat government for land on November 23. The Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) allotted a plot near Vadodara on November 30, said the director of Paharpur Cooling Towers (PCT), Gourav Swarup.

“We have already got land clearance from the Gujarat government. They are likely to hand it over in the next 15 days. The allotment happened so fast that even we were taken by surprise,” Swarup said, adding that Gujarat is giving PCT 11 acres. “We wanted a bit more. But this will do to begin with.” PCT’s Bhasa plant sits on 12 acres and the Taratala one on 3 acres.

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