July 13, 2014
Boost for Bengal: State receives fresh investment proposals worth Rs 1600 crore
A day after the announcement by Singapore`s Changhi group toraise stake in the Bengal project, the industrialization process in the stategot another boost on Saturday .
The Rs 8,000-crore Emami Group and Vikram Solar, UtkarshTubes and Shakambhari Gagan Ispat have announced Rs 1,600-crore freshinvestment proposal in the presence of the state commerce and industriesminister Amit Mitra at a meeting organized by the MCC Chamber of Commerce &Industry. Besides, Shyam Infra, Emami and UAL Industries have reiterated theircommitment to go ahead with their earlier announced projects worth Rs 3,000crore.
Emami Group director Manish Goenka said that it is planningto expand the Mukundapur facility of AMRI with an investment of Rs 150 crore.”We will double the number of beds there,” he added. Goenka also said it isgoing ahead with the Rs 500crore cement grinding unit in Raghunathpur and anintegrated hospital with nursing college in Rajarhat with an investment of Rs500 crore. “We have got 5 acres for the Rajarhat project. We will soon startwork on this. The group is in talks with a Singapore-based consultant fordesigning,” he added.
Shakambhari Ispat is investing Rs 850 crore in Purulia foran integrated steel and power plant. Deepak Kumar Agarwal, chairman and MD ofShakambhari, said it is buying 175 acres near its existing facility in Puruliafor the project. “The project should be completed by the end of 2016. We willset up a 37 MW power plant along with 600 tonne per day rolling mill and 200tonne per day pig iron plant. Our existing facility has abillet and sponge ironplant,” he said, adding that the group is also planning to set up a coalwashery there.
Gyanesh Chowdhary , director of Vikram Solar, said they areinvesting Rs 500 crore in next 2 years for expanding capacity in their Faltafacility.
The combined employment in these projects will be over2,500. Minister Amit Mitra said, “This shows that a lot is happening. In fact,Changhi of Singapore has rated our industry policy as the best among all Indianstates,” he added. Mitra again tried to allay fears of the industrialists onland and said that the state had over 3,000 acres to offer to industry inRagunathpur, Kharagpur and Panagarh.
Image: Bengal Leads Summit, 2013
