GUWAHATI: Financial mismanagement has led to uncertainty in the completion of the Hi-Tech City in Assam. It is difficult for the authorities to ascertain when the multi-crore project on the outskirts of Guwahati will be completed.
The project was undertaken by the Assam Electronic Development Corporation Ltd (AMTRON), an Assam government undertaking.
During the tenure of former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, in January 2018 a proposal was undertaken for developing an Information Technology (IT) Park and Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC), “Tech City”, on a plot of land measuring 100 acres at Bongora in Kamrup district.
Sonowal along with Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had laid the foundation for the Tech City project at Bongora on February 1, 2018, two days before the Global Investors Summit in Guwahati in the presence of State Science, Technology and IT minister Keshab Mahanta.
Israel Ambassador to India, Dr Ron Malka also visited Tech City on November 4, 2020.
Even after five years, the project is moving at a snail’s speed.
A source in Dispur informed that according to a recent internal draft audit, it was observed that AMTRON “mismanaged” the finances of the project which stopped the work halfway.
The state-owned company moved the centre for the Tech City in January 2018 with a Detailed Project Report and estimated budget of ₹119.85 crore, informed the Dispur source.
The Centre cleared it the next month and released ₹68.04 crore where the incurred expenditure amount stood at ₹70 crore.
In a strange move, the Centre received a revised DPR where the total amount was hiked to ₹607.21 crore. Of this amount, ₹487.00 crore was proposed for the IT park while the remaining ₹119.85 crore was meant for the EMRC project.
The Centre agreed on ₹50 crore for the EMRC project while the state government sanctioned ₹39.89 çrore and the remaining ₹29.96 crore was proposed from the company itself.
Further, the company in 2021 moved to the Bank of Maharashtra for a loan of ₹487.36 crore for IT Park. The entire project started in the 2017-2018 fiscal. The company received ₹68.04 crore for the EMRC project and the amount of expenditure incurred stood at ₹70.04 crore.
The target for completion of the project was estimated by December 31, 2028, but at present, the work of the project is suspended, informed the source.
The centre released ₹25 crore while the state government released ₹26.33 crore along with ₹26.71 crore funding of its own in 2017-2018.
On the other hand, the IT park project which received an initial funding of ₹100 crore has not progressed so far even after utilising ₹89.55 crore.
The internal draft audit blamed utter financial mismanagement for the entire mess, according to the source.
For the entire project, the company received ₹168.94 crore while only ₹159.39 was utilised leaving a fund of ₹8.56 crore unutilised.
"The company prepared and started an ambitious project of Tech City to the tune of ₹607.21 without proper funding arrangements despite precarious financial health," the draft audit report stated according to the source.
Till March 31, 2022, the company has incurred an expenditure of ₹70,04 crore against the fund it received ₹68.04 crore for the construction of EMC, including Common Facility Centre (CFC) buildings, roads and drainage, the works of which started on February 1 and was scheduled to be completed on December 31, 2028.
The construction of IT Park, including the G+8 steel structure building, multi-level car parking, solar panel etc, was also incomplete till March 31, 2022, even as the company spent an amount of ₹89.35 crore for it, said the source.
Against the total project cost of ₹607.21 crore, the company received only ₹168.04 crore (27.67 per cent of the total cost) and a balance of ₹447.82 crore was yet to be received. The company had incurred expenditure of ₹159.39 crore against the fund received of ₹168.04 crore leaving an unspent balance of ₹8.65 crore till March 2022.
According to the draft audit till March very “minimal” work was done.
As per the sanction letter of the Central government for EMC, AMTRON was required to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) before December 31, 2018, or before the release of the second instalment. Though the company nominated (July 2018) its subsidiary company named “AMTRON Informatics India Limited (AIIL)" as SPV due to poor progress of the project, only five acres out of 41 acres of leasable land could be allotted to three units.
As a consequence, the Centre did not release a balance fund of ₹25 crore to the company due to non-compliance with stipulated conditions.
The draft audit report added that based on the sanction of ₹119.85 crore, AMTRON could have completed the EMC project, which was a self-sustainable component of the project, after its receipt of ₹168.04 crore from March 2018 to March 2022 for EMC project which included the development of basic infrastructure such as construction of CFC buildings, electrical sub-station, roads, drainage system, etc.
However, instead, AMTRON decided (July 2019) to take IT park works which included the construction of the G+8/G+3 steel structure building, and International Internet Gateway project, which were not part of the EMC component of the project without tying up its funding sources.
The works under the Tech City project were halted in June 2023, said the source.
GPlus tried contacting AMTRON chairman Ramendra Narayan Kalita but he was unavailable for comments.
UPDATE
Upon publishing this story on December 26, the GPlus team met with the Managing Director of AMTRON who addressed the conclusion of the report, upon which the story has been updated on December 29, 2023.
It was learnt that the initial report by GPlus was based on an internal draft audit report and AMTRON is in process to address the same via their requisite mechanism.
The initial report filed by GPlus is concluded as premature in nature and the update shall be done from time to time with corrective information and facts.
