West Bengal Commerce, Industries and Finance Minister, Amit Mitra, today made a fervent pitch for investments in the State. Investment, he said, could also be made across the six “smart theme” cities that the state government was planning.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mitra said the six “smart themed” cities includes one on sports at Howrah (Kolkata’s twin city across the river Hooghly); a senior citizens city at Baruipur (29 km from Kolkata ); a health and education city in Siliguri (in North Bengal); an industrial city in Assansol (206 km from the state capital); an art and culture city at Bolpur (155 km) and an analytics city at Kalyani (51 km ).

At least 25 per cent of the space in these areas (themed cities) would be reserved for the theme, while commercial development could be carried out in the remaining parts.

According to him, companies such as HP (Hewlett Packard); Pratt & Whitney, E&Y (Ernst & Young) and Cisco have evinced interest in participating in the development of these “themed cities” and in e-learning, e-health, tele-medicine, and so on.

“There are six smart themed cities that we plan to set up in the coming days. I urge The Bengal Chamber to explore the possibility of collaboration with some of these companies,” he said. The Bengal Chamber, on its part, has taken up the development of the analytics city at Kalyani.

 

Investments

 

At present, the State has seen investments to the tune of Rs 87,000 crore, which have either fructified or are in the process.

Bengal had obtained investment commitments to the tune of Rs 243,000 crore at the international summit concluded earlier this year.

According to Mitra, the State has taken several steps to ensure “ease of doing business”. These include faster and time-bound clearances, quick approvals, and deemed clearances if the state government officials fail to provide renewals within a stipulated time frame.

 

Growth of State

 

Claiming credit for development and growth in the State, the Minister pointed out that the State Plan Expenditure has seen a 311 per cent growth in the four years since the Trinamool Congress came to power. State Plan expenditure grew from Rs 14,165 crore in 2010-11 (the last year when the Left Front was in power) to Rs 44,074 crore in 2014-15.

Similarly, social infrastructure growth was at 301 per cent during this period (2010-11 to 2014-15) from Rs 6,845 crore to over Rs 20,600 crore. The growth in agri, allied, and rural development has been to the tune of 547 per cent.

The state’s capital expenditure, which saw negative growth of 26 per cent in 2010-11, has in the four years of the new government seen 600 per cent growth to over Rs 13,300 crore in 2014-15, he said.

 

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW