State Minister for Commerce and Industries Nirupam Sen announced this on Thursday.

“Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had shown a letter, which she claimed to have received from Tata Motors. She said that the Tatas have written that they only wanted 650 acres for the project,” said Sen.“We wrote to the Tatas to clarify their stand on the issue. In reply, they explained that they required 650 acres for the mother plant and 290 acres for the ancillary units,” he added.

Principal Secretary Sabyasachi Sen of the Department of Commerce and Industries, meanwhile, said: “The land acquired at Singur will not be returned. The land for the ancillary units is indispensable.”

On Thursday, the state government claimed that Wednesday’s meeting between the delegations led by Chief

Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the Trinamool Congress led by Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee had ended on a positive note.

A senior official of the state government said: “Firstly, they had agreed that they have no objection to the factory coming up on 650 acres at Singur. Secondly, they no longer stuck to their demand for the return of 400 acres of land and said it was negotiable. And thirdly, they claimed they were ready for further talks.”