Although West Bengal's present contribution to the Indian automobile sector is negligible, the state could capture about 10 per cent of the projected size of the domestic industry by 2022, a study undertaken by CII and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has suggested.
With India's automotive sector expected to grow to $220-260 billion by 2022, West Bengal could augment the existing state clusters by garnering direct investments in the range of $6-7 billion.
However, the state government would need to introduce a clear policy as well as a set of initiatives for the automotive sector. Reworking the land acquisition process, which has been a contentious issue in Bengal, as well as investment support would be required, the study stated.
Moreover, establishing industrial parks, for providing world-class facilities and enable the pooling of resources, along with promoting PPP projects would be necessary, the report recommended. “The automotive industry is one of the key sectors of any economy. The sector offers tremendous potential for providing employment, which is a key challenge for India’s policymakers,” CII Eastern Region Chairman Mukul Somany said.
The automotive sector will also have a huge impact on the inflow of foreign direct investment in West Bengal, roughly by $ 4.2 billion, and will create an additional 2,50,000 direct jobs and an estimated 7 million indirect jobs across the automotive value chain in the state by 2022, PwC Executive Director (Performance Improvement) Partha Kundu added.
