Government boasts of big push to industry, investment
Rs 1.8 lakh-crore business proposals under translation, reveals book.
Kolkata: The book published by the Mamata Banerjee government to commemorate the occasion of its sixth anniversary has pointed out that more than Rs 1.8 lakh crore of industry proposals are under translation, indicating West Bengal’s industrial graph to on the rise.
The Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) for 2015 and 2016 has brought in investment proposals of more than Rs 5 lakh crore, of which 1,87487 lakh crore is already under process.
The book, titled Let’s Unite to Grow, highlights achievements of the Trinamul Congress government. “Be it general production or manufacturing, in all areas of industry, indices of production have shown significant improvement,” a senior government official said.
The book mentions a number of projects currently implemented in the state by big companies that includes a Rs 40,000 crore project by public sector unit SAIL, Rs 6,600 crore by Matix Fertilisers, Rs 4,600 by Aditya Birla Group, Rs 4,000 crore by ITC (Integrated Food Park and Infotech Park), Rs 700 crore each by OCL Cement and JSW Cement, Rs 700 crore by Exide, Rs 378 crore by Coca-Cola, Rs 350 crore by PepsiCo and Rs 250 crore by Amul Diary.
The manufacturing index for financial year 2011-12 was 0.94 per cent, which rose to 6.6 per cent during 2016-17 (April-January period). In general industrial production, corresponding figures were 2.14 per cent 6.97 per cent, respectively.
During 2015-16, when the percentage increase in industrial production in India was 7.3, that for Bengal was 10.6.
The Left Front government had, till March 31, 2011, set up 89 industrial clusters. The number shot up to 343 during the six-year tenure of the TMC.
Besides industrial clusters, the government has set up some unique clusters like Rural Haat, Urban Haat and Karma Tirtha. Thirtyone such haats or markets have been established till March 31 this year.
The third edition of BGBS in 2017, held on January 20 and 21, has brought in investment proposals of Rs 2,35,290.03 crore. The CM attributed to demonetisation to the slight decline in the investment proposals.