GUWAHATI: An utter financial mismanagement has allegedly pushed the Hi-Tech City in Guwahati, Assam into a state of uncertainty.

As of date, nobody knows when the much-hyped multi-crore project in the outskirts of Guwahati undertaken by the Assam Electronic Development Corporation Ltd (AMTRON), an Assam government undertaking, would see the light of day.

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A proposal was undertaken by the BJP-led government in Assam led by then chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in January 2018 for developing an Information Technology (IT) Park and Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) known as “Tech City” on a plot of land measuring 100 acres at Bongora in lower Assam’s 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’s Ambassador to India, Dr Ron Malka also visited Tech City on November 4, 2020.

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However, five years have passed, and there is no sign of completion of Tech City.

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A recent internal audit has blamed AMTRON all on the financial bunglings for the uncertain state of the project which stopped halfway.

All the irregularities had allegedly taken place when MK Yadava (currently the principal chief conservator of forest) was the managing director of AMTRON.

There is more than what meets the eye.

The state-owned company moved the Centre for the Tech City in January 2018 with a Detailed Project Report of Rs 119.85 crore. The Centre cleared it the next month and released Rs 68.04 crore where the incurred expenditure amount stands at Rs 70 crore.

In a strange move, the Centre received a revised DPR where the total amount hiked to Rs 607.21 crore.

Of this amount, Rs 487.00 crore was proposed for the IT park while the remaining Rs 119.85 crore was meant for the EMRC project.

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The Centre agreed on Rs 50 crore for the EMRC project while the state government sanctioned Rs 39.89 çrore and the remaining Rs 29.96 crore was proposed from the company itself.

Further, the company in 2021 moved to the Bank of Maharashtra for a loan of Rs 487.36 crore for IT Park.

The entire project started in the 2017-2018 fiscal.

The company received Rs 68.04 crore for the EMRC project and the amount of expenditure incurred stands at Rs 70.04 crore.

AMTRON set the target of December 31, 2028, the date to complete the EMRC project.

But that has not happened even in nearly 50 months. The Centre released Rs 25 crore while the state government released Rs 26.33 crore along with Rs 26.71 crore funding of its own in 2017-2018.

On the other hand, the IT park project which received an initial fund of Rs 100 crore has refused to progress so far. That too after utilising Rs 89.55 crore.

The internal audit blamed utter “financial mismanagement” for the entire mess.

For the entire project, the company received Rs 168.94 crore while only Rs 159.39 was utilised leaving a fund of Rs 8.56 crore unutilized.

“The company prepared and started an ambitious project of Tech City to the tune of Rs 607.21 without proper funding arrangements despite precarious financial health,” the audit report stated.

Till March 31, 2022, the company has incurred an expenditure of Rs 70,04 crore against the fund it received Rs 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 Rs 89.35 crore for it.

Against the total project cost of Rs 607.21 crore, the company received only Rs 168.04 crore (27.67 per cent of the total cost) and a balance of Rs 447.82 crore was yet to be received as of March 2022.

The company had incurred expenditure of Rs 159.39 crore against the fund received of Rs 168.04 crore leaving an unspent balance of Rs 8.65 crore as of March 2022.

The project remained incomplete till March 2022 even after a delay of more than three years.

The audit revealed that AMTRON received Rs 68.04 crore for the EMC project from the Centre (Rs 25 crore) and Assam government Rs 16.33 crore) and its contribution (Rs 26.71 crore) during the period 2017-2022.

The balance fund (Rs 5 1.81 crore) for this project is yet to be received from both the centre and the state governments (Rs 48.56 crore) and the company’s own sources (Rs 3.25 crore).

It is revealed that AMTRON could mobilise a loan of only Rs 100 crore for an IT park project from BoM and it had incurred an expenditure of Rs 89.35 crore with an unspent balance of Rs 10.65 crore as of March 2022.

Even after a lapse of more than three years from the commencement of the project in 2017-18, the company had neither a fixed target date for completion nor the funding source tied up for the project.

As per the sanction letter of the Central government for EMC, AMTRON was required to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) before 3 December 1, 2018, or before the release of the second instalment where at least seven EMC units should be on the BoD of the SPV and these units must hold at least 51 per cent of the share capital of the SPV with no single unit holding more than 25 per cent.

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 Rs 25 crore to the company due to non-compliance with stipulated conditions.

The report added that based on the sanction of Rs 119.85 crore, AMTRON could have completed the EMC project, which was a self-sustainable component of the project, after its receipt of Rs 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, 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.

As such works under the Tech City project were held up and remained incomplete for more than five years as of June 2023.