Mitra woos industrialists to invest in West Bengal

West Bengal Industry and Finance Minister Amit Mitra today made a fervent effort to hardsell the state before industrialists at the CII National Council Meet.
"I am listing you the positive aspects for which everybody should consider West Bengal as their investment destination," Mitra said.
"Firstly, integrity and transparency of the government led by Mamata Banerjee is the greatest plus point which any investor will strive to get," he said.
He also listed areas like growth, infrastructure, taxation reforms, human skill, policy clarity and reduction in mandays lost as the government discouraged bandhs and strikes.
Mitra praised the former Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee, who was sitting beside him at the event saying: "Parthada had been chaperoning the industry department soon after the new government came to power by creating core committees as advised by the Chief Minister till I stepped in."

He said contrary to perception, land was available in industrial parks of WBIDC and WBIIDC for small projects, and areas like Raghunathpur, Panagarh and Kharagpur were ideal for large projects.

Mitra said: "Given the present intent of the government to industrialise the state, there will be no place for shenanigans."
He informed that at the instance of the Chief Minister, the state's Industry Department had put in place relationship managers for new large projects which were 57 in number now. Mitra also invited the industry to set up commercial properties atop bus depots, which would come up at various parts of the city.

Mitra today handed over 440 acres of land to nine projects which included one power plant, Universal East Coast Power, and a cement plant of Emami with an estimated investment of Rs 500 crore.
Noted industrialists which were present at the meet were Adi Godrej, Krish Gopalakrishnan, Harsh Neotia and Sanjiv Goenka.