West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has said that, the State government would look into taking back unused land parcels for developing industrial zones to attract investments, and create employment in the State. Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new stainless steel coach making unit of Titagarh Wagons here on Wednesday, she said, “Close to 700 acres of land is lying there. I will ask the Chief Secretary to look into it and (if required) take over the land. If there is a court case, fight it out.”

The Chief Minister was referring to the unused land parcel of close to 700 acres at Uttarpara in West Bengal, lying with the C K Birla Group outfit, Hindustan Motors. She said that the land was given for industrial purposes, but has been lying “unused”. Hindustan Motors is believed to have sold few land parcels from the Uttarpara site to real estate developers. The company had recently expressed an interest to start an electric two-wheeler plant on the site.

According to Banerjee, for land parcels stuck in legal cases, she would ask her officials to plead before the court to get them back so as to develop industry and generate jobs. She also laid the foundation stone for the shipyard at Falta, virtually.

Expanding capacity 

Titagarh Wagons is looking to invest close to ₹ 1,000 crore over the next three-to-five years for expanding wagon manufacturing capacity, and for setting up a new foundry unit for backward integration. The company currently has a capacity of manufacturing around 8,400 wagons a year, and is looking to scale it up to 12,000 wagons a year in the next three-to-five years. 

“We have embarked on this project to manufacture aluminium and stainless steel coaches for metro and passenger wagons. We are envisaging a total investment of around ₹ 1,000 crore on our current and forthcoming projects over the next three-to-five years,” Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Titagarh Wagons said.

The company currently has two foundry units with a combined capacity of close to 30,000 tonne. Moving forward, they are looking to set up a new foundry unit with a capacity of close to 70,000 tonnes in West Bengal.

Titagarh Wagons primarily has three business verticals — freight, which includes wagons and foundry units; transit and propulsion, and SBD (shipbuilding, bridges and defence). Freight accounts for nearly 70 per cent of its total business, transit and propulsion accounts for nearly 25 per cent while the remaining (five per cent) comes from SBD division. 

The company’s order book position stands close to ₹ 11,000 crore as on March 31, 2022, up from ₹ 2,500 crore during the same period last year. It expects the growth momentum to continue backed by a robust demand. 

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