At the 6th Bengal Global Business Summit, CM Mamata Banerjee said that the state will establish ₹72,000 crore industrial zone in Jangalmahal
At the 6th Bengal Global Business Summit, CM Mamata Banerjee said that the state will establish ₹72,000 crore industrial zone in Jangalmahal
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said on Wednesday his group’s investments in West Bengal will exceed 10,000 crore in the next decade.
“Adani Group’s investment in Bengal will include world-class port infrastructure, state-of-the-art data centers, undersea cables connecting them across oceans, centers of excellence in digital innovation and giant fulfillment centers, warehousing and logistics parks. We will continue the expansion of Adani Wilmar Fortune, already a household name in the state. All in all, we expect our total investments in Bengal to exceed ₹10,000 crore over the next decade,” said Mr. Adani while speaking at the 6th Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in Kolkata’s New Town.
Mr Adani said the proposed investment will create about 25,000 direct and indirect jobs for the people of West Bengal.
Business leaders, representatives and diplomats from 19 countries, including Bangladesh Trade Minister Tipu Munshi and Bhutanese Economy Minister Loknath Sharma, attended the event, which came after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal said the group’s energy division is keenly pursuing a 900MW hydro pump storage project it hopes to secure through a nomination, along with a world-class reel shop in Kolkata that will provide steel mills in India. The state government has decided to construct a third pumped storage power plant at the Bandhunala project in Purulia.
“JSW Commission, a greenfield cement unit near Salboni, is currently undergoing a tremendous expansion. In this regard, I must emphasize that our experience of starting and running an industry here has been seamless and lucrative. We have not lost a single man-day at our plant due to labor or supply issues in the supply chain,” said Mr. Jindal.
No lost man-days
Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee also said that man-days lost to strikes and disruptions in the state have dropped to zero and this is one of her government’s greatest achievements. To woo investors, she said, “We lost 75,000 man-days every year during Left Front rule, but no more man-days are lost now.”
Regarding large-scale industrial projects, the Chief Minister said the state government will set up a ₹72,000 industrial zone in Jangalmahal, the forested areas of South Bengal districts along the East Cargo Corridor, and has prepared a policy on granting shale gas exploration licenses. “We have set aside 2,483 acres of industrial land in Purulia for the project along the eastern freight corridor from Amritsar to Dankuni,” she said.
Ms. Banerjee also spoke about the proposed deepwater port in Tajpur and the Deocha Pachami project, touted as the second largest coal block in the world.
While several industrialists speaking at the opening session of the Economic Summit praised the state’s programs for the social sector, the CM said: “For the social sector I have done what I could” and “now my new target is industry”. , he added “The journey to industrialization has begun”.
“You invest in Bengal, I can tell you one thing, politically I may have differences with other political parties. But we don’t divide people… Forget whether you are from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi or Tamil Nadu. If you are in Bengal, you are our family member,” Ms. Banerjee said.
