Bengal on industrialisation path

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State commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee lights the lamp to inaugurate the Neotia Academy of Nursing

The Mamata Banerjee-government is all set to sign an agreement for the first big ticket industrial project in the state in last four years. The Universal Success Enterprises (USE) promoted by Bengali NRI industrialist Prasoon Mukherjee has proposed to invest around `26,000 crore in three projects at the Nayachar after shelving its earlier chemical hub or the PCPIR (petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region) project on this island.
“The draft of the agreement is almost finalised. It will be signed in next few days,” Mr Mukherjee announced after meeting state commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee on Tuesday. Mr Chatterjee also confirmed that the agreement would be signed after the chief minister’s consent.
According to the proposal, an eco-friendly industrial park, a thermal power plant project and a eco-tourism project would be set up on around 11,800 acres land at Nayachar. While the development of the industrial park will need an investment of around `12,000 crore, the power project and the eco-tourism project would involve investment of around `12,000 crore and `2,000 crore respectively. Mr Mukherjee claimed that the industrial park once developed would attract an investment close to `50,000 crore further. These three projects altogether would create 30,000 jobs.
In 2006, the state government had signed an agreement with the New Kolkata International Development Private Limited (NKIDPL), a special purpose vehicle floated by the Salim Group of Indonesia, USE and the Unitech for setting up a slew of projects, including the chemical hub at Nandigram. However, resistance from the local villagers against land acquisition and subsequent police firing at Nandigram had forced the government to shift the chemical hub project to Nayachar.
Later, a separate company, APC Roy Chemical Complex (APCRCC), a joint venture between the NKIDPL and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) was formed to set up the chemical hub. The project, however, remained a non-starter and the state government had to scrap its agreement with the NKIDPL in 2010. Now the NKIDPL is solely owned by USE after the exit of both the Unitech and Salim Group. “We want to start the project in next two and two and half months with rehabilitation of some 800 fishermen families. We have already applied for the environment clearance and foresee no reason to face any problem. The equity and debt ration of the entire project would be 30:70,” Mr Mukherjee claimed.
Meanwhile, NKIDPL has accepted the state government’s request to not demand a cumulative interest of around `32 crore against `70 crore that it had paid to the government as an advance for the land. Mr Chatterjee requested Mr Mukherjee to waive the interest considering the financial crisis of the state government.