The Adani group was the top draw on the first day of Bengal Global Business Summit with chairman Gautam Adani committing his group to invest Rs 10,000 crore in the state over the next decade across business verticals.
Speaking at the state’s flagship industry event for the first time, Adani said the group’s investment in Bengal will span across port infrastructure, data centre and undersea cable, centres of excellence in digital innovation, fulfilment centres, warehousing and logistics park and the expansion of Adani Wilmar Fortune products.
“Over the next decade, our total investment in Bengal will exceed Rs 10,000 crore. We anticipate that this investment will create 25,000 or more direct and indirect jobs for the people of Bengal. Thereafter, as we continue to expand here, we will bring into Bengal our world class expertise across the green energy value chain,” said Adani.
ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri said that the business conglomerate has already invested Rs 4,500 crore in Bengal over the last few years, including food processing facilities at Panchla and Uluberia with a combined built-up area of 1.2 million square feet.
ITC at present has 19 manufacturing units in Bengal of which nine are in food processing. Puri said the company was lining up further expansion by putting up a new state-of-the-art personal care products manufacturing facility at Uluberia.
“Very shortly we are going to commence the construction of our 20th manufacturing facility, again at Uluberia,” Puri said.
He added ITC Green Centre & Infotech Park at Rajarhat is nearing completion. Sources said the investment in the new factory would be Rs 350 crore. The IT Park will have 5,000 seats capacity to begin with and be ready by the year-end.
JSW group chairman Sajjan Jindal said the group’s expansion plan in the state includes a hydro pump storage project as well as a roll shop for the steel industry.
“To demonstrate my ongoing commitment to Bengal, we are keenly pursuing a 900MW hydro pump storage project. We hope to receive this prestigious project through a nomination from the state government,” Jindal said at the summit.
“Furthermore we are exploring the investment of a world class roll shop near Calcutta that will cater to the steel industry,” he added. The Telegraph reported earlier this month that JSW Steel is in the race to acquire Gontermann-Pipers India Ltd.
Jindal’s other proposals in the state include a temple across 700 acres of land at Mayapur and modern museum at Rajarhat. Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji said the construction of the second campus of Wipro in the state is expected to begin in the next few months.
Wipro’s current IT campus at Salt Lake employs more than 11,000 people.
“We have got an additional 50 acres of space at Rajarhat and it will form an important part of our future growth plan,” Premji said. This will be a training plus development centre.
Niranjan Hiranandani, co-founder and managing director, Hiranandani group said that its projects in the state include a data centre at Uttarpara with an estimated investment of around Rs 1,500 crore and a 100 acre industrial and logistics park.
Additional business memorandums are expected to be signed on the second day of the summit. Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has also virtually flagged off the five-day Bengal Global Trade Expo-2022 at the Science City from the business summit.
The expo is being organised by the Confederation of West Bengal Trade Associations. Meanwhile an electric mobility start-up, Causis E-Mobility Private Limited, proposes to set up an electric bus manufacturing unit in West Bengal and will sign an MoU with the state government for a 50-100 acre land.
The company plans to invest Rs 2000-2500 crore in the state. The plant will produce 500 to 1000 electric buses per annum as per demand. The plant will directly employ 1250 people.
This was stated by Ravi Kumar Panga, director and CEO of Causis E-Mobility Private Ltd who is in the city for the BGBS and is due to sign the MoU tomorrow. “We are looking at a time frame of February 2023 when the first electric bus will roll out from the West Bengal plant provided land is allocated by May this year,” said Panga.
The company, part of the UK-based Causis Group, has acquired Germany-based Eurabas for its electric bus technology. It has also acquired the Azad Group body-building plant in Jaipur which has a capacity of 750 e-buses per annum. Last October, Causis signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government to establish a plant in Pune where it will invest Rs 2800 crore. In February, it signed a similar MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government. The company has also won a tender for 700 double-decker e-buses from Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport.
