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Bangalore:
Coca Cola India has said that it may consider closing
down or relocating its plant at Plachimada in Kerala.
The
operations of the plant have been temporarily suspended
till the monsoon sets in following a direction from the
State Government.
A
top company official said on condition of anonymity that
a decision on the future of the plant will be taken shortly,
and the company was not ruling out the possibility of
shutting down.
Blaming
the State Government for indecisiveness, the official
said: "The State thinks the project is a goldmine
for us and we won''t leave. It is not. We have lost a lot
of money in the last one-and-a-half years, and frankly,
we are tired. Kerala accounts for less than one per cent
of our national sales. The company said that it has received
an invitation from Tamil Nadu to relocate the plant.
It
said that any decision by the company to pull out could
hit Kerala''s plans in attracting foreign investment. "We
are expected to resume operations in June and will look
for an agreement
with the State before doing that," the official said
while explaining that State was yet to honour commitments
on water and power connections made at the time of inviting
investment.
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