Representatives of automobile major BMW and West Bengal government held talks in Germany on about six proposals including component manufacture, shared services and vehicle manufacture.
Briefing the media after the meeting, West Bengal Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra said a numbers of presentations were made by the company and the state government.
Green mobility“Green mobility is an important tenet of their technology now and small electric cars and hybrid vehicles were discussed,” Mr. Mitra said. “We have told them that all options are open — component manufacture, shared services and vehicle manufacture.”
He said electric cars, motorcycles and hybrid vehicles featured during the talks. He declined to answer a question on whether any special incentive package has been offered to BMW, which has a unit in Tamil Nadu. The two sides also decided to appoint pointspersons for taking “today’s talks forward.” “We are working towards a sustained relationship,” Mr. Mitra said.
BMW, during the meeting, made presentations on its India strategy and activities and green mobility initiatives.
The West Bengal Government showcased the state’s developments. “It was essentially a confidence-building meeting,” said Mr.Mitra.
He felt the collective presence of the state did leave a mark on them. On Monday, the delegation was in Dusseldorf where meetings were held with Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the regions as also government representatives of the North Rhine Westphalia Region.
Although the country’s first automobile manufacturing unit was located in West Bengal in which the iconic Ambassador cars were made by the Birlas, the land in Uttarapara in the state’s Hooghly District now lies in waste after the unit shut down in May 2014.
West Bengal’s efforts to host another automobile unit through the Tata Motors’ small car project in Singur is of course history although Ms. Banerjee, as the opposition leader who spearheaded the Singur land agitation leading to the project’s flight, has often remarked that it is possible to turn the state into an auto hub.
