The Left Front government in West Bengal today agreed to Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee’s proposal for a rail coach factory at the abandoned Tata Motors site in Singur and said it would talk to the Tatas for getting back the land once an announcement is made by the Railways.

“The state government will talk to the Tatas after the Railways officially make the proposal,” Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborti told reporters. He said he had written a letter on Monday to Railway Board chairman S S Khurana in view of the proposal by Banerjee. Chakraborti said the state government was in principle in favour of handing over the entire 997.11 acre land in Singur, acquired for the Tata car project, to the Railways for the coach manufacturing factory. The Tatas, he said in his letter, had decided to shift their project from Singur to Gujarat and the state government was now exploring alternative use of the land for development of industry.

“Now that the Tata Motors Ltd has withdrawn, the state government may advise WBIDC to initiate the process to get the land back as soon as a firm decision was taken by the Railways.” He pointed out that Singur, located 50 km from Kolkata, had all necessary infrastructure for setting up a large industry.

Meanwhile, Banerjee’s party colleague and MP Sishir Adhikary and his son Suvendu, also an MP, today warned that Haripur would become another Nandigram if the state or Central government tried to acquire land to set up a nuclear power plant by displacing people.

On Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is on a tour of Russia, announced that Russian help would be sought for developing a nuclear power plant in Haripur in East Midnapore.

Suvendu Adhikary told The Indian Express: “I am against the nuclear power plant in Haripur because people here do not want it. Under no circumstances will we allow the plant here. If anyone tries to acquire land here, there will be another Nandigram.”