Odisha junks Mehul Choksi’s project

MUMBAI: The Odisha government has scrapped a first-of-its-kind ₹636-crore private gem and jewellery, lifestyle and luxury goods park project that was to be set up in the state by Mumbai-based Mehul Choksi-promoted Gitanjali group.

Even as Mr. Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, the prime accused in the ₹13,500-crore PNB scam, are evading arrest and have fled the country, the Odisha government has cancelled the land allotted to Gitanjali Gems for a jewellery manufacturing unit.

In early 2016, the Gitanjali group had applied for its own unit to be set up in the name of Gitanjali Gems and had got 30 acres of land allotted at Ramdaspur near Cuttack. Then it applied for a private industrial park on an additional 70 acres land.

It had got approval for both but land had not been allotted for the private industrial park.

Once the company got approval for the private industrial park, it wanted to set up the whole project under Gitanjali Infratech Ltd, and had applied to change the allotment of 30 acres of land in the name of Gitanjali Infratech.

“IDCO (state government entity), which had got the application for changing the land to the name of Gitanjali Infratech, had cancelled the allotment made to Gitanjali Gems. [But] before the land could be allotted to Gitanjali Inftatech, this thing (the scam) happened. So right now the allotment stands cancelled. The fresh application has not been taken up,” said Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary (industries), Government of Odisha.

“Today there is no one whom we can talk to. So there is no allotment as of today,” Mr. Chopra said. “So now this project is shelved,” he added.

A senior state government official said though the state did everything expeditiously to make this unique project — that was to create 15,000 jobs in seven years — a reality, midway they found Gitanjali lacking interest. “May be they ran into financial issues and were not responding to our letters. And then the scam broke,” the official said.