“Singur is a dead issue,” Nirupam Sen, state Minister for Commerce and Industries, today told The Indian Express at the end of a meeting of the state cabinet on commerce and industries.

Sen also said that he had no plans to meet Ratan Tata, Tata Sons’ chairman, who is coming to Kolkata to preside over the Annual General Meeting of Tata Tea on August 23. “The land at Singur is still with Tatas. Anyway, I have no plans to meet him nor has he shown any interest in meeting us,” Sen said further.

Last year, Ratan Tata had met Nirupam Sen in his office when he was in Kolkata to preside over the Tata Sons’ AGM on September 1. There, Tata had made it clear that the group was ready to part with the 1,000 acres of land at Singur provided they are given adequate compensation for the land.

After Tata Motors’ pull out from Singur in October 2008, the state government had first invited Chinese automobile giant First Automobile Works to build an automobile unit there. When it did not materialise, the government invited Bharat Heavy Electricals of Bhopal to set up a power plant. But the company, after a visit of the site by its officials by end of 2009, had decided not to go ahead in the project.

Mamata Banerjee, after taking over as Railway Minister, sent a proposal to the state government for building a railway coach factory at the site. But since the proposal was for building the factory on just 600 acres of land. it was rejected by the state government.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee made several announcements regarding discussions with interested parties. However, nothing concrete has happened till now.