By Rabindra Nath Sinha
KOLKATA: It is time to say with a degree of confidence that an investment drought that has afflicted West Bengal all these years has started disappearing and the first signs of a sustainable improvement have become visible. The situation had turned worse after the Tatas quit the 80 per cent complete Nano car project at Singur in Hooghly district in 2008 in the face of intense agitation against land acquisition for the facility by the Left Front government. The decision of Bombay House shook the confidence of investors and for them West Bengal became a ‘no, no’ state. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who became chief minister in May 2011 and is into her third term, did not realise the implications of her action and never repented the departure of the country’s most respected and internationally acclaimed Tata Group.
Ground realities – increasing migration of workers, educated youths leaving the state for higher studies and jobs in other states, existing industries – with the exception of certain ‘ committed to Bengal’ companies – shied away from ploughing back funds for modernisation – forced a rethink and she started her ‘own’ versions of business conclaves. Industrialists, established and prospective, never ignore chief ministers’ invitations. West Bengal was no exception. Claims were made that proposals in ‘lakh crore’ had been received. But no details about execution plans were shared in public domain. This situation had been continuing.
But, from the third year of TMC’s third term in office, some positive pointers could be noticed. This has since been becoming more visible; although it is debatable how much is attributable to state efforts and business summits and how much is because of circumstances – memory of Singur (also Nandigram) fading, emergence of new generation of entrepreneurs who may be unaware of Singur and foreign companies seeing merit in the state’s plus points – easy availability of manpower, high skill level, more economic as an investment destination etc.
The reality of West Bengal ultimately having the presence of Infosys (Rs 426 crore facility opened on December 18, 2024), the Kumaramangalam Birla Group choosing Kharagpur for a paint facility (under Birla Opus brandname), the US firm Global Foundries’ decision to locate a semiconductor plant in Kolkata, Reliance Jio’s cable landing station at Digha, the decision of PSU Balmer Lawrie to set up a 3PL (third-party logistics facility at Dankuni), the proposal of the Foundry Cluster Development association to set up a foundry park in collaboration with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation near Sankrail in Howrah district are examples that confirm that the investment climate is showing definite signs of an improvement.
It deserves to be mentioned that ‘loyal to Bengal’ houses and companies, such as, ITC, Sanjiv Goenka Group, the Dhanuka Group have continued to invest in new ventures and upgradation of brown-field units. The Sajjan Jindal Group, which could not set up an integrated steel plant because of uncertainties over iron ore supplies, has invested in creating cement capacity. And, of course, mention has to be made about the Tatas – despite the frustrating experience at Singur, the Group continued to invest in the cancer centre, opening of new hotels and entering into management contracts for hotels built by other companies.
The focus now shifts to the eighth edition of Bengal Global Business Summit scheduled for February 5 and 6.
Despite Singur, the investment and employment scenarios would not have been so depressing for the people had not the chief minister irrationally blocked right from the start of the TMC regime in May 2011 several big ticket investment proposals of the Union government and PSUs under its control. Implementation of the proposals would have benefitted the state exchequer immensely and created job opportunities for a large number of educated youths. Also, those projects would automatically have helped setting up of ancillary units which would have created additional job opportunities. Similar proposals made by the Centre for states were welcomed by those states which also aided their execution right from the land acquisition stage.
Among the projects she blocked soon after assuming office as chief minister in May 2011 mention has to be made of a hub under the centre’s petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical investment region (PCPIR) concept at Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district and a 10,000 mw nuclear power project (six units of 1,650 mw each) with Russian collaboration at Haripur, also in Purba Medinipur district. Her predecessor Left Front’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had laid great store by these ventures because he wanted Purba Medinipur to become as industrially developed as Paschim Medinipur is.
At Nandigram, Mamata’s weapon was the same as at Singur in Hooghly district – agitation against land acquisition. As a substitute, she had announced then an eco park would be set up at Nandigram. She does not speak about it any more. It needs to be mentioned in this context that Indian Oil Corporation was to be an anchor investor under the PCPIR concept. For the nuclear power venture the initiative was taken by UPA regime Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He got it included under India-Russia protocol. Mamata’s opposition to it was on environmental considerations. It deserves mention here while Haripur was a victim of Mamata’s red signal, around the same time the nuclear power venture at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, where there was some opposition but the Tamil Nadu government those days saw to it that the project was implemented by Nuclear Power Corporation of India and had offered all help in sorting out hitches.
Neither NTPC nor Nabanna says anything about the former’s power project near Katwa in Purba Bardhaman district for which 55 per cent of the required land had been acquired during the Left Front regime. NTPC’s original plan was for 1,600 mw; subsequently the capacity was scaled down to 1,320 mw. At one stage the incumbent chief minister had said NTPC was free to acquire the balance land on its own and the state would render help. The fact remains the project has not materialised. There is reason to suspect whether this NTPC proposal became a victim of a private sector giant’s manoeuvres at a later stage ; although initially it was the TMC government’s neglect.
Mamata had cited lack of serious efforts on the part of the Union government in expediting commencement of work on the Tajpur deep deep-sea port project in Purba Medinipur district. Major ports are part of the Centre’s responsibilities and the Union minister concerned – Nitin Gadkari, in this case – had on several occasions reiterated New Delhi’s commitment to it. Years were lost in war of words; ultimately Mamata said the state government would execute the venture on its own. Nabanna, around the time of the sixth edition of BGBS on April 20 and 21, 2022, had almost ‘firmly indicated’ that it would award the project to the Adani Group, whose top bosses had talks on it with the chief minister. It looks like the state government had decided to revisit some aspects – legal and administrative – and the net result is that work on it is yet to begin.
The list of projects that could not fructify because of land acquisition problems won’t be complete without mentioning that Damodar Valley Corporation pulled itself out of the Khagra-Joydev coal block project at Dubrajpur in Birbhum district. After waiting for several years, DVC surrendered the block to the Centre in August 2022. It had to directly acquire land from villagers. It would be interesting to watch how the chief minister handles railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s charge that his ministry is unable to proceed for 61 schemes that would entail investment of Rs 60,000 crore as hurdles – mainly making available land, including that owned by the railways, are not being removed. “Completion of these projects require the TMC government to rise above politics”, Vaishnaw said on October 2, 2024 when he visited the city for official programmes. (IPA Service)
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