With change of guard in Bengal, India Inc lines up big investment plans for the state

Corporate India is lining up investment plans worth hundreds of crores for West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee is set to take over as the next chief minister. "Despite Mamata forcing Tata to drive Nano out of Singur, industrialists feel that she is going to be industry-friendly and the change of regime will attract huge investment into the state. In fact, more than a dozen industrial houses are waiting to enter the state with huge investments that runs into hundreds of crores," said a senior official of industry body Assocham, who did not wish to be identified.

Industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), said, "West Bengal was once amongst the top industrialised states and accounted for a high percentage of the nation's manufacturing output. Unfortunately, the state has lost its pre-eminent position in the industrial hierarchy of the nation."

The industry body hoped that the new government will usher an era of rapid and inclusive overall economic development in the state. "The government will restore the confidence of investors in the state and will be very industryfriendly. We expect a positive turn for the state economy that will be a win-win situation for all," Ficci secretary general and Trinamool Congress party member Amit Mitra told Mail Today.

Companies lining up investments for West Bengal include the realty major DLF, Emami, Infosys Technologies and Wipro, among others. DLF, which had entered the state in 2007, was forced to exit the troubled Rs 33,000-crore Dankuni public-private partnership (PPP) township project in the Hooghly district of West Bengal in 2009.

Spread over 4,840 acres, Dankuni was hailed as one of the biggest PPP projects in the country. But even after DLF paid Rs 271 crore to the state government in 2007 after it emerged as the highest bidder, it was not able to acquire even an inch of land due to noncooperation by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).

This is now set to change. According to sources, Trinamool has promised to help restart the ambitious project under Mamata Banerjee's rule. The management is already planning to contact the party leaders in this regard. IT bellwether Infosys too, had lined up investments worth Rs 500 crore for West Bengal in 2004 to set up a development centre. However, the project did not take off.

According to sources in Infosys, now that the Left Front has been voted out and with Amit Mitra in the picture, Infosys expects West Bengal to emerge as a new IT hub. "I believe the new government will work with industry to gain its trust," added S. Gopalakrishnan, vice chairman, CII. However, he maintained that industry would need to wait for some time.

The new government has a tough task at hand with the state's debt burden having risen by a significant 29 per cent in the last fiscal, and about 85 per cent of its revenue going towards payment of salaries and interest.

Courtesy: Mail Today