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Article

25 Aug 2014

Author:
India Resource Centre

Coca-Cola Forced to Abandon $25 Million Project in India, claims campaign activists

Coca-Cola...has been forced to abandon a $25 million newly built bottling plant in Mehdiganj, Varanasi, India as the result of a sustained campaign against the company's plans....The $25 million plant...had already been fully built and the company had also conducted trial runs, but could not operate commercially as it did not have the required permits to operate...Somehow having learnt that its application had been rejected...Coca-Cola sent a letter to the Central Ground Water Authority...two days before the rejection was to be made public...stating that it was "withdrawing" its application...Coca-Cola blamed "inordinate delays" by the authority as the reason for its "withdrawal" just two days before the decision was to be made public...The campaign has worked for the last two years to ensure that the regulators were made aware of the problems being created by Coca-Cola's existing bottling facility, and the reasons why a five-fold increase in groundwater allowance that Coca-Cola had sought for its new facility would further deteriorate the conditions in the area.