Nearly a decade after the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off the modernisation and expansion programme of the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) of the Steel Authority of India Ltd at Burnpur in West Bengal in December 2006, the project has now reached its fruition and is set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
This is the single dose of investment in Bengal since Trinamool Congress has come to power in 2011.
The economic significance of a project like ISP acquires a new meaning for the capital-starved State. It has not only brought in investment but has also created capital assets, which will have multiplier effect on the State’s revenue.
In 2006, the project investment at ISP was pegged at Rs 9,600 crores for creating a 2.5-million ton capacity steel plant by 2010. On completion, the investment tops Rs 18,000 crore. Another Rs 1,000 crore of ancillary investment has taken place in Asansol and Durgapur, some 30 km away.
During the peak project-completion period, some 20,000 unskilled workers were employed at the site. ISP would employ 8,000 people directly.
Social infrastructure has come up all around the project site restoring in some measure the heydays of this steel-town. Green shoots have now sprouted in an area which until recently lived only in the past. Overcoming past despondency, Burnpur now buzzes with economic activity which is expected to get louder in the months following Sunday’s ceremonial inauguration.
Alongside the social infrastructure, physical infrastructure projects are also being taken up.
