Mukesh Ambani to invest in West Bengal

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, has committed to invest in West Bengal.

Investments will come mostly through its telecom arm, Reliance Jio. Around Rs 5,000 crore has already been invested through the arm in laying high-speed optical fibre (for faster broadband connections) and connecting various parts of the State.

According to Ambani, the company will invest in connecting all 40,000 plus villages, 2,800 colleges, "all'' rural and urban schools and hospitals that include primary, secondary and tertiary ones.

Even rural primary health care centres will be connected under the high-speed broadband programme, he promised.

While Ambani did not mention the amount of investment, he added that they will materialise over the next 24 months.

At present, 24,339 villages out of 40,000, and 1,059 towns have been connected through 12,500 km of optical fibre.

"We will connect all the remaining villages by 2017," the Reliance Industries Chairman today said during the Bengal Global Business Summit.

"We have already invested over Rs 5,000 crore in West Bengal.... As our next phase of investments in the next 24 months, we will connect all the rural and urban schools, 2,800 colleges and across hospitals," he added.

Reliance Jio services, he said, will be rolled out in 29 States and West Bengal features high on that list in terms of ease of doing business.