The continuing delay in starting the Rs 40,000-crore Dankuni township project, caused by the government’s failure to procure the promised land till date, could throw realty major DLF’s other plans in Bengal out of kilter.

“We are way behind schedule, since even the first instalment of 1,600 acres is yet to be handed over to us,” said a top DLF official in Calcutta, expressing concern over the fate of other projects the Delhi-based firm has on the drawing board for the state.

DLF had bagged the CMDA tender for the 4,840-acre township in Dankuni in 2006, and paid an advance of Rs 270 crore to the state. Writers’ Buildings had pledged to procure and hand over the land in five instalments, the first 1,600 acres to be transferred to the developers in 2007.

On Wednesday, state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya assured DLF officials that the government “was committed to the project” and apologised for the delay in land procurement, which has held up ground-breaking.

The minister’s soothsaying notwithstanding, the government’s go-slow policy on land procurement, accentuated by the recent debacle in the panchayat polls, has sown seeds of uncertainty over timelines for the integrated township. Dankuni is expected to throw up 1,80,000 dwelling units across the entire consumer gamut.

“Yes, procurement of the land has been delayed and now it has to wait for the new land procurement committee to be constituted, following the panchayat elections,” admitted P.R. Baviskar, the CEO of the CMDA.

While the delay translates into huge losses for the company, which has already invested “a fortune” for the project, it could also send out negative signals to the market and fuel price escalation, felt experts.

“After Rajarhat, Dankuni is a great opportunity for the government to create land parcels for real estate development. If it is stalled and demand for housing continues to grow, there would be pressure on prices and the consumer would suffer,” observed Abhijit Das, the regional director of international property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj.

The Dankuni project proposes a non-polluting industrial hub across 770 acres on one side of National Highway 2. The rest of the township, including housing and retail formats, schools, colleges, hospitals and hotels, will develop on the other side of the highway.

“We are still committed to Dankuni and all our other projects in and around Calcutta. But we have finite resources and if the impasse is not resolved soon, the burden could become too large to bear,” the DLF official declared.

The company has already pledged another Rs 10,000 crore in city projects. An IT project across 25.9 acres is nearing completion. Besides a 15-acre residential estate and a 400,000-sq-ft mall in Rajarhat, the group is also building a five-star hotel on the Bypass with Hilton.