Chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani, on Wednesday said that over the next decade, his group’s investment in West Bengal will exceed ₹10,000 crore.
“The Adani Group’s investment in Bengal will span world class port infrastructure, state-of-the-art data centres, under-sea cables that will connect them across oceans, centres of excellence in digital innovation, and massive fulfilment centres, warehouses and logistic parks. We will continue the expansion of Adani Wilmar Fortune, which is already a household name in the State. All in all, over the next decade, we expect our total investment in Bengal to exceed ₹10,000 crore,” Mr. Adani said, 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’s Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi and Bhutan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Loknath Sharma, participated at the event that was held after a gap of two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chairman of the JSW Group, Sajjan Jindal, said that the group’s energy arm is keenly pursuing a 900 MW hydro-pump storage project, which it hopes to receive through a nomination, along with a world-class roll shop in Kolkata that will cater to steel plants in India. The State government has decided to develop a third pumped storage power plant at the Bandhunala project in Purulia.
“JSW Commission, a greenfield cement unit near Salboni, is now undergoing enormous expansion. To this accord, I must highlight that our experience of starting and running an industry here has been seamless and lucrative. We have not lost a single man-day operation at our plant due to supply chain labour or utility issues,” Mr. Jindal said.
No man-days lost
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also said the man-days lost in the State due to strikes and disruptions were down to zero, and that was one of the biggest achievements of her government. Wooing investors, she said, “We lost 75 lakh man-days every year during the Left Front rule, but now no man-days are lost.”
Speaking about major industrial projects, the Chief Minister said the State government will set up a ₹72,000 crore industrial zone in Jangalmahal, the forested areas of south Bengal districts along the eastern freight corridor, and has readied a policy on the grant of shale gas exploration licences. “We have allocated 2,483 acres of industrial land at Purulia for the project along the eastern freight corridor from Amritsar to Dankuni,” she said.
Ms. Banerjee also spoke about the proposed deep sea port at Tajpur and the Deocha Pachami project, which is being touted as the second largest coal block in the world.
While several industrialists who spoke at the inaugural event of the business summit lauded the State’s social sector schemes, the CM said, “For the social sector, I have done whatever I could”, and “now my new destination is industry”, adding that “the journey for industrialisation has started”.
“You invest in Bengal, I can tell you one thing, politically, I may have differences with other political parties. But we do not divide people… Forget if you are from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, or Tamil Nadu. When you are in Bengal, you are our family member,” Ms. Banerjee said.
