Law Ministry to resolve Tata-DoT issue

A seven-year controversial dispute between VSNL (now Tata Communication) and DoT over the demerging of 773.13 acres of surplus land would be resolved by Law Ministry. Telecom Commission, the apex decision-making body in DoT seeks to put an end to the issue with the help of law Ministry as it failed to resolve the issue amicably on July 5th. Recently, Kapil Sibal, Telecom Minister has questioned about the delay in settling the problem.

Since the privatization of VSNL in 2002, DoT intended to transfer the land to set up a separate company and Tata Group had to execute it as per the shareholder's agreement. But the hassles struck when Tata Group raised number of issues including clarity on who would bear the cost of creating the new company. And also the 773 acres of land, spread over five locations in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune, was not part of the deal. Hence the Government and the Tata Group have been feuding over the disposal off the land.