Kolkata, Feb 15(UNI) Initiating the process of setting up a chemical hub, the West Bengal Government today handed over 'Nayachar', a 13,000 acre island near the industrial town of Haldia, to a private consortium.

West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation(WBIDC) and New Kolkata International Development, a consortium of three companies, signed the necessary agreement in presence of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The Chief Minister said WBIDC and NKID formed a joint venture company--Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy Petro Chemical Private Limited, for implementation of the proposed project, entailing an initial investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

'' The area has been handed over to enable NKID to do necessary survey and feasibility study. We have already communicated to the Centre about the land already identified,'' he told reporters.

NKID will hold 51 per cent and WBIDC 49 per cent equity shares in the new company.

The proposal for setting up the hub at Nayachar got the Centre's approval recently.

The project, originally mooted by the Centre was orginally scheduled to come up at Nandigram, but the state Government had to backtrack following stiff resistance from the local people over land acquisition.

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