O. P. Jindal Group company Jindal Steel Works (JSW) will make a presentation before the government regarding the progress made on the Salboni project in West Bengal, state Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said. He also said that there was no dearth of land for industry in the state. In an informal interaction with the media at the State Secretariat he said that the government was keen to know the progress made by the group on its Rs.30,000-crore steel and power project in the state. “They are in touch with me and I have asked them to come and tell us about the status of their project and they have agreed”.
He said that the Jindals were set to make a presentation before the government on August 5 in this regard. It may be mentioned that even as it maintains that there is no dearth of land for industry in West Bengal, the state government is keen to assess and, if need be, take back land that is being left unutilised by industry. At her first industry meet after takeover, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had mentioned the case of the Jindals in this respect.
Former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had laid the foundation for this 12 million tonnes project in November 2008 and the blast on his convoy is said to have launched the Maoist-backed ultra left turmoil in West Bengal, while the Jindals got caught in the maelstrom of the global financial crisis.
However, indications were that the present government was not keen to drive away anymore industries and it appreciated the way the Jindals hung on to the project through the strife-torn period of ultra-left turbulence. Lalgarh, the icon of West Bengal's Maoist trouble, is about 50 km from the project site but the company has successfully put a 36-km long boundary wall around the 4,500 acres that it has physical possession of. It has also started CSR (corporate social responsibility) work around the project site.
