Kolkata, May 26 (IANS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said the 2007 agreement between the state government and Tata Motors for the Nano car plant in Singur would be made public Thursday.

"We have received a copy of the agreement on the Singur project. Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee is studying it. After he studies it, he will get back to me. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will make it public. We will give it to the media," Banerjee told mediapersons here.

Asked whether the government could disclose the pact as the Tatas had earlier gone to court citing the confidentiality of the agreement, she said: "of course we can. There is no hide and seek. We are transparent."

Banerjee said she has not received any request from Tata Motors not to make the document public. "The earlier government did not disclose the agreement. But it is our commitment to make it public. We are now in power. We will make it public."

Tata Motors had to abort its plan to set up the small car plant in the Hooghly district's rural belt Singur following an intense agitation of farmers led by Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

The protesters demanded that 400 acres out of the 997.11 acres acquired for the project by the state's then Left Front government be returned to farmers from whom the land was "forcibly taken".

The Tatas finally shifted the plant to Sanand in Gujarat in late 2008.

The Trinamool, then the principal opposition party, demanded the Left Front government make public the agreement. But the government refused to do that citing the confidentiality clause.

Reiterating her government's decision at its first cabinet meeting Friday to return 400 acres of land to the farmers, Banerjee said: "It has to be returned. It is a cabinet decision. If the Tatas can set up industry in the remaining about 600 acres, they are welcome."

Banerjee said she had no knowledge that the Tatas want to be compensated as a condition for giving back the land leased to them. "It's a financial matter. I don't know."

She said Tata Group chief Ratan Tata sent her a letter congratulating her on her party's success in the assembly polls. The chief minister said she will reply to Tata's missive.

"Other than the congratulatory message, I have not received anything from him. If they say they want to set up industry, they are welcome," she said.