The West Bengal government has accorded permission to the Tata Motors [Get Quote] officials to carry on initial work in the land at Singur earmarked for its Rs 100,000 small car project.

The state government's efforts to get consent letters from all the landowners of the project site has also been successful.

"We have already given the Tata officials permission to work at the site under the Permissible Area Act. They have begun the initial soil testing operations," state's commerce and industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen told Business Standard.

"We, however, kept the option of giving consent letters open so that all the landowners could give their formal consent," Sen said.

"We are getting the fruits of our efforts and already 300-400 consent letters had come even after the deadline for the same had been over," he said.

Sen, however, did not spell out any timeframe for formal handover of the land, which now being held by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, the state's industrial promotion nodal agency.

He said the government is working on the nitty-gritties of the legal formalities and framework required to be completed with the Tatas for formally handing over the land.

Sen said the acquisition of the entire 997 acre land required for the project was completed the day when the state government affected the land acquisition law for developmental purposes.