Mihan rail terminal job to CONCOR | Mihan Project Train Join | Mihan Sez & Indian Rail

Mihan rail terminal job to CONCOR | Mihan Project Train Join | Mihan Sez & Indian Rail



CONCOR has been allotted 66 acres of land at 1 crore an acre, and the decision has been endorsed by MADC's board on Thursday. However, on Friday itself Nagpur Sical Gupta Road Terminal Ltd (NSGRTL), secured a court stay till April 7.

This company had earlier bagged the contract to set up the rail as well as road terminal in Mihan, although the work did not take off with both MADC and NSGRTL trading charges of non-cooperation and backing out on promises. NSGRTL says that eventually the project became unviable for which it blames MADC. The latter, on the other hand, questions the seriousness of NSGRTL in going ahead with the job.

The very concept of Mihan, which stands for multimodal, international cargo hub and airport at Nagpur, (Mihan) is based on setting up infrastructure to facilitate, movement of cargo through rail, road as well as air. For this a facility like road and rail terminal is essential. However, due to several reasons, the core idea had taken a back seat and the special economic zone (SEZ) coming up in the adjoining area got a priority.

MADC had invited bids for the rail terminal a couple of months ago. Although a road terminal was also planned to be built simultaneously, MADC decided to do it later, again due to an objection by NSGRTL. As MADC went ahead with terminating contract with NGSRTL citing non-payment of rent as reason, the latter decided to evoke the arbitration clause in the deal over the road terminal.

Now, the company says the contract has been wrongfully allotted to CONCOR. MADC's vice-chairman-cum-managing director UPS Madan confirmed both the developments. He said CONCOR was expected to start work as soon as the formalities were over. About litigation, he said a status quo has been ordered and MADC will have to reply by April 7.

The company's stance is that although the contract was allotted to NSGRTL, it did not make the requisite payment to take over the land. As a result it was decided to go-head with the fresh contract.

The CEO of NSGRTL Ashok Mundhara said the land could not be taken over as MADC had not acquired it at all. "The contract was allotted in 2006 and the land was acquired in 2009. By this time the portion was excluded from the SEZ, taking away tax benefits. Moreover, companies projected to be starting operations in Mihan did not come up too. NSGRTL wanted a deal on fresh terms to which MADC did not respond," he told TOI. He said the company was still ready to go-ahead with the project provided there were conducive conditions.

However, earlier this firm had maintained that the project was given up on the grounds that it would be a dead investment due to lack of industries in SEZ.

Mundhara said both road and rail terminal were complementary to each other and could not be developed in exclusivity.