New Delhi, April 11 :     Coca-Cola India has dropped its plans to buy out its franchisee bottler in West Bengal-the Goenka-owned Black Diamond Beverages Coca-Cola. This indicates a freeze, at least temporarily, on further acquisition of franchisee bottlers in India. The West Bengal bottler has been in final stages of negotiations with the cola giant and the deal was to have been sealed this year. However, Coca Cola, which has been forced to write off $400 million of its assets in India in the first quarter of 2000, has decided to put these plans in cold storage. The decision to stall further acquisitions in India appears to have been taken long before Coke's chief financial officer Gary Fayward announced in New York that the company was writing off half of its assets in India. In keeping with its worldwide strategy of converting key bottling franchisees into company owned bottling plants, Coke has invested more than Rs 1,000 crore in acquiring bottlers so that an integrated bottling entity would give them better returns. Among the major bottlers which have been bought over are those in Agra, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai. Only four major bottlers - the Goenkas in West Bengal, Ladhanis in Uttar Pradesh, another Goenka group in Ludhiana, and the Khandharis in Punjab are now left as independent bottling entities. N.R. Goenka, part owner of Black Diamond Beverages, refused to comment on why Coke was not willing to buy out their plant. 'Coke has shelved its plan of buying us out. That is mainly because we have to set our house in order first. My brother and I are going in for a legal split of the jointly owned property,' he added. However, sources close to Goenka said both brothers were reasonably ready to go ahead with the deal and the hitch was from the Coke's side. Coca Cola India declined to comment on the issue. Black Diamond Beverages runs two bottling plants located at Taratola and Dankuni, from which the bottler distributes Coca-Cola beverages all over West Bengal. According to earlier plans, the Taratola plant was to have gone to N.R. Goenka while the unit at Dankuni was to go to his brother S.R. Goenka. The Taratola plant has a bottling capacity of 600 bottles per minute. The Dankuni plant has two lines - one with a capacity of 600 bottles per minute and the other has a capacity of 20 pet bottles per minute. N R Goenka had earlier said, 'The soft drink market requires huge long term investments in terms of equipment, marketing facilities which is not possible for us anymore. Hence, it only makes sense for us to sell them off. Only a company of Coke's size can afford the long period of wait before returns on investment start materialising.' The West Bengal soft drink market accounts for only about 15 million cases a year. But analysts say it is one of the fastest growing markets reporting up to 30 per cent growth a year. This they feel is the main reason why Coca-Cola has been eyeing the two plants for a long time. Coca-Cola's Thums Up is the top cola drink in the state, while Pepsi is reportedly the number two cola. Coke, which was re-launched in the mid-1990s, in Calcutta is third.