Delay in NOC, Cola giant to move new unit out of Varanasi

Low ease of doing business has cost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, a manufacturing line of Coca Cola’s largest bottling partner in India. The company, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, is setting up the planned investment at another location in Uttar Pradesh after inordinate delay in getting a no objection certificate (NOC).

The Rs. 145-crore new line for manufacturing 600 bottles per minute would have created 350 jobs in Varanasi. A company official told The Hindu that the investment would now be made at Unnao, Kanpur or Dasna.

“Hindustan Coca-Cola has taken the decision to move the proposed new PET line away from the Varanasi plant and re-locate it somewhere in Uttar Pradesh… We will continue to operate the existing Returnable Glass Bottle line, as we have been doing for the last 15 years,” a company spokesperson said.

The delay in the NOC from the Delhi-based Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) had led to financial losses, the company said.

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Source: Thehindu