Cuttack, March 3: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s ambitious Rs 300 crore integrated textile park (ITP) project in Choudwar has been thrown off-balance after the final round of bidding for property and assets of Orissa Textile Mills got over.

With the Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco) virtually out of the race for the 522 acres of land, the fate of the ITP project has apparently been sealed believe senior officials of the textile and handloom department admit on conditions of anonymity.

The future of the project assumes significance as Naveen Patnaik’s government had promised to boost industrialisation in and around Choudwar and to provide employment to local people by setting up the ITP.

Patnaik had also projected assured utilisation of fine cotton grown in the KBK regions. In fact, the government in October 2006 had signed a MoU with Welspun Group’s managing director B.K. Goenka for the ITP.

Welspun Anjar SEZ limited, under the MoU, had committed to set up an integrated textile park encompassing a modern spinning mill with a capacity of 25,000 spindles and a weaving mill at an investment of Rs 300 crore.

Mill commissioning was assured within a year’s time from the date of transfer of 400 acres of encumbrance free land in Choudwar.

With plans to provide the OTM-land to the firm for the joint venture, textile and handlooms department had filed a petition in Orissa High Court in October 2006 for recall of the liquidation process of the mill. A year later, the state made a volte-face and wanted “liquidation” of OTM as a legal entity.

Meanwhile, the Welspun Group has reportedly backed out of the park project due to inordinate delay in providing free land in Choudwar as assured under the MoU.