The Railways wrote back to the Left Front government on Wednesday expressing their readiness to set up the rail coach factory on the land in Singur that was acquired for the Tata Motors to set up their small-car factory.

In a letter to Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti, the chairman of the Railway Board, S S Khurana, has stated: “We (The Railways) are ready to set up (rail coach factory) project if you provide us with the land.”

The development comes a day after Chakrabarti had announced that the state government was in favour of handing over the entire 997.11 acre land in Singur to the Railways for setting up the coach manufacturing factory if the latter takes a firm decision on it.

But the Trinamool Congress is in a fix even though it was its chief Mamata Banerjee, who in her capacity of Railway Minister, had first mooted the proposal of setting up the coach factory on the controversial land.

Trinamool leaders, who officially refused to make comments on the latest development, said the state government’s decision to put the controversial Singur issue in Trinamool’s court is a clever ploy to hamper the party’s fortune ahead of the 2011 Assembly elections.

Despite the state government’s offer, setting up a rail coach factory on the Nano site could be a distant dream owing to the legal complexities, the status of the land and Mamata Banerjee’s own demand of returning the 400 acres of acquired land to farmers who had objected to the acquisition.

It is not only the Trinamool leaders who are pessimistic about the project. So are the officials of the Railways.

The foremost problem for setting up the coach factory is to get back the land from the Tatas, who have made it clear that they will not hand over the land without being properly compensated.

Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Motors, had earlier announced that his company will leave the Singur land only after they get proper compensation. On September 1, when Tata visited Kolkata he had said that the failed Nano project cost him nearly Rs 500 crore.

“It is still not clear whether the state government will be able to get back the land from the Tatas after paying the compensation amount to them as per their demand,” said a senior Trinamool leader. “The state government has also not made it clear how much money the Tatas have claimed as compensation for handing over the land to the state government,” he added.

Secondly, seven petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court over the Singur land.

Apart from this, Trinamool chief’s own demand of returning the 400 acres of the land to the “unwilling” farmers before beginning any work at the project site will return to haunt her and Railways.

“Our leader cannot set up the coach factory even if there is one unwilling farmer who has not got back his land. This is a difficult proposition since 400 acres is not available in a single chunk and the character of the land has already been transformed. Already, roads and factory sheds have been built on the land,” said a senior Trinamool leader.

“The Left Front government will have to take the responsibility of getting the land back from the Tatas and then returning the 400 acres to the farmers,” the leader added.

While making her proposal for setting up the coach factory, Banerjee had said that the project will come on the 600 acres of land and the remaining 400 acres will have to be returned to the farmers.