Has Adani lost the same tender they won in 2022 in Bengal? Mamata Banerjee’s sudden announcement raises doubts

Thirteen months after handing over the Letter of Intent (LoI) for the Tajpur deep sea port project to Adani Port of businessman Gautam Adani, the Bengal government has publicly announced the opening of the tendering for the same project soon. Interestingly, the announcement in very limited words came from Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday at the Bengal Global Business Summit in Kolkata.

"First is the proposed deep-sea port at Tajpur, which is ready for tender. You can participate in the tender, and this will attract an investment of USD 3 billion or Rs 25,000 crore," said Mamata Banerjee while addressing the delegations at the business summit as part of her 12 “game-changing opportunities” in Bengal. That was the first of the 12 opportunities she had announced stoking speculations if the association between the Adani group and the Bengal government has ended over the Tajpur port project.

The LoI for the Tajpur port project was handed over to Karan Adani, CEO of Adani Port on October 12, 2022 by Mamata Banerjee. Adani Port was the L1 bidder out of two final bids while JSW Group was also a contender in the bidding.

While the state government hasn’t officially issued any statement about the status of the tender, sources confirm News The Truth (NTT) that the tender has dissolved for now. Top sources tell NTT that the port project needed the approval of the Central Government for a private company that won the tender to execute the work. The NOC came with a caveat where the Centre made it the responsibility of the State government for anything adverse about the private firm executing the project, claim sources.

Interestingly, the Adani group had no representation at the Bengal Global Business Summit on Tuesday. There was no representation from the Hiranandani group. Their conspicuous absence from the summit incidentally coincided with the ongoing ‘cash-for-query’ controversy of TMC MP Mahua Maitra that also involved two other names- Adani and Hiranandani.