West Bengal - Economy and Project Developments

[portsez]

[QUOTE=AbhishekDatta;84187506]WB asks RITES to upgrade tourism infrastructure
Tuesday, September 27, 2011


Kolkata: The West Bengal government has approached central agency RITES for consultancy in upgrading infrastructure with a view to promote tourism in the city, Darjeeling hills and the sea resort town of Digha.

"We have approached the RITES, a Central agency engaged in providing engineering consultancy, for a comprehensive and sustainable tourism project in the state. We are waiting for their response by the end of the year," Tourism Minister Rachpal Singh said.


It's a long pending demand of the hill people of Darjeeling to sanction Rope way project from Eco-tourist center , TAKDAH to NHPC -Rambhi Rank via Barbatey bridge which is a 100 year old suspension bridge and a major tourist attraction, Durbhindara near 2/3 no.dhura in Poomong tea estate, Namring power house and Mungpoo where a central university is coming up.Mungpoo was the favourite abode of Sri Gurudev Rabindranath Tagoreji.This would promote eco- tourism in Rangli-Rangliot development Block of Darjeeling district.

[NiladriG]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/113042...p#.UXyj-LWw3oI

The Bengal government has lost about 50,000 fertile acres to Jharkhand but, despite land being a sensitive issue in the state, doesn’t seem to mind it.

The people living there do, though many of them now say it’s better to live in Jharkhand than in a state that doesn’t care about them.

Constitutional experts say the area — chars (river islands) on the Ganga in Malda — belongs to Bengal.

“I was a Bengali once,” says Mushtaq Sheikh, an elderly char settler. He still speaks in Bengali and possesses land documents issued by the Bengal government but holds a voter ID card issued by the Jharkhand administration.

Mushtaq’s family lived in Banutola village in Malda before the Ganga gobbled up most of it in 1958. When the eroded land re-emerged as a char in the ’90s, the family and many others returned to live there.

The settlers call the char “Banutola”. It belongs to “Palashgachhi” mouza, which Jharkhand shows as part of the state’s Rajmahal Assembly constituency. The original Palashgachhi mouza, which included the original Banutola village, was part of Kaliachak II block of Malda before it disappeared into the Ganga in the late ’50s.

“We are from Bengal, we speak Bengali and would like to go back to Bengal. But no Bengal government wanted us back,” says Momjad Sheikh, Mushtaq’s neighbour.

The families have been living here for about two decades. Although most of their original land documents bear a Bengal government seal, they have to go to the sub-divisional court at Rajmahal, Jharkhand, for matters relating to their resettlement.

River shift

The reason Mushtaq, Momjad and tens of thousands others have “moved” to Jharkhand is that the Ganga has shifted its course 10km eastwards in Malda since the ’50s, eroding its banks.

“The river was chosen as the boundary between Bengal and Jharkhand (erstwhile south Bihar) in 1947,” says river expert Kalyan Rudra.

“During the past few decades, its course has shifted eastwards causing erosion of land measuring around 200sqkm (50,000 acres) from 67 mouzas in Manikchak and Kaliachak I, II and III blocks of Malda, much of which has re-emerged as chars. These areas should be considered part of Bengal but, for all practical purposes, are now in Jharkhand.”

Many of the lost mouzas of Malda have been officially included in the 2011 mouza list prepared by Ranchi.

Local people say that around 25 new chars — “diyaras” in the local language — have surfaced in the past five decades. Some 18 of them are now home to 1.5 lakh people, most of whom were once Malda residents.

Those born here after the 1950s never saw a school in their childhood. Nor did the Bengal government renew any of their official documents since the 1970s.

“Our old ration cards were cancelled in 1971 by the Malda administration,” a settler said.

The Left Front government had an additional reason to be indifferent —the area was the turf of late Congress stalwart Ghani Khan Chowdhury.

Environmentalist Biswajit Mukherjee, former chief law officer with the Bengal pollution control board, recently filed a public interest litigation in Calcutta High Court on behalf of the Ganga Bhangan Protirodh Action Nagarik Committee.

Mukherjee has demanded “specific demarcation” of the interstate border “taking into consideration the constitutional provision” as well as immediate extension of “all rights and facilities enjoyed by the citizens of India to these unfortunate people”.

On April 18, the high court directed the authorities to consider the petition but also observed that the Supreme Court might be the better place to resolve the issue as it involves two states.

[Suncity]

Another big bad news for West Bengal - nothing seems to be going right

JSW Steel puts Rs 35,000-cr West Bengal project on hold

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle4663030.ece

JSW Steel has put on hold plans to set up a 10 million tonnes steel plant in West Bengal as it has not been able to secure long-term iron ore supplies for the Rs 35,000-crore project.

“It is stalled right now, it’s on hold. Unless we are going to fix the iron ore matter, unless we have the visibility of iron ore, we cannot move ahead. It’s on hold,” JSW Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal told PTI.

JSW is working with the Centre and the State Government to secure an iron ore mining lease, he said, adding, long-term visibility of iron ore is required to begin construction of the plant.

When asked about a timeline for the project, he said: “Nothing (is) in my control. The project is stalled at the moment.”

The West Bengal project of JSW, first announced in 2007, has been getting delayed for various reasons. This included a land acquisition row with the State Government after the Mamata Banerjee-led Government took charge in 2011. The issue has now been resolved and land acquisition has been completed.

However, the company has not been willing to move further on any new project, including the ones in West Bengal, without securing either a long-term iron ore supply agreement or a captive iron ore mine due to its experience in Karnataka.

For more than one-and-a-half years now, JSW has been running the Karnataka plant at a reduced capacity due to an iron ore crunch in the State.

Deallocation of the Gourangdih ABC coal block last year by the Coal Ministry is also an issue JSW is facing. The block, allocated to JSW and Himachal EMTA jointly in July 2009, would have provided coal for the captive power plant of the Bengal plant.

JSW has challenged the de-allocation of the coal block in court and the matter is currently sub-judice.

[AbhishekDatta]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Another big bad news for West Bengal - nothing seems to be going right

JSW Steel puts Rs 35,000-cr West Bengal project on hold

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle4663030.ece

hope they resolve the issue quickly..

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by AbhishekDatta

hope they resolve the issue quickly..

Hope so too.

[Suncity]

Aegis commissions Phase I of bulk liquid terminal at Haldia

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle4594556.ece

Aegis Group today said it has commissioned the first phase of its new bulk liquid terminal in Haldia having storage capacity of 15,100 kl (kilolitre).

The total capacity expansion (a greenfield project) at Haldia involves setting up of a bulk liquid terminal with 19 tanks totalling storage capacity of 60,190 kl, the company said.

“Now with Phase I commissioning, five tanks will be operational and will have a storage capacity of 15,100 kl,” the company said in a statement.

With this new capacity, Aegis Logistics will handle liquid volumes of over 2.5 million tonnes (MT) and gas volumes of over 7,50,000 MT.

“The expanded facilities at the Eastern port shall enable the company to expand its horizons by catering to market of North-East and Eastern states as well as opportunity to handle products for neighbouring countries,” the statement said.

Aegis Group has exuded confidence that the balance capacity of the Haldia terminal will be commissioned by the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal, it added.

[Suncity]

Haldia Petrochemicals on verge of becoming sick

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/19812799.cms

It could be the beginning of the end of Haldia Petrochemicals, the flagship of the neo industrialization in West Bengal. Once called the dream project for the state's industrial revival, HPL is now just one step from becoming a potential sick company. A source in the company said the HPL board of directors will convene a meeting soon to notify the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), known as graveyard of industrial units.

The move comes after a 50% erosion of the company's peak net worth in the last four years of reference.

A company is declared a sick unit once 100% of its net worth is eroded, while it is notified as a potential sick unit in case of 50% erosion.


If HPL is formally declared as a sick unit and is closed down, it will directly or indirectly impact over 2.5 lakh people, which may be more than the number of persons affected by the Saradha scam, the source pointed out. HPL directly employs 850. Besides, there are 900 downstream units in the state which run on HPL products. Their employees and dependants could add up to over 2 lakh. It has been learnt that HPL's chief financial officer D S Chakraborty is putting in his papers, making things tougher for the company.

With a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore just a few years ago, HPL was Bengal's third-largest company after Coal India and ITC. It reported a net worth of Rs 500 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2013 — less than 30% of the peak net worth of the petrochem giant in the preceding four financial years. The net worth of a company is derived by subtracting accumulated losses from the sum of equity and reserve.

[niljee]

Government gives nod for two major ports in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh

Press Trust of India | Updated: May 09, 2013 20:57 IST
New Delhi: Giving a push to infrastructure development, the government on Thursday approved a proposal to set up two major ports in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh at an investment of about Rs. 15,820 crore.

"The proposal for setting up two major ports in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh has been cleared," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The new port in West Bengal, which will have a capacity of 54 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), requires an investment of around Rs. 7,820 crore.

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The other new port in Andhra Pradesh, whose projected capacity is around 50 MTPA, will entail an investment of about Rs. 8,000 crore, the Minister said.

The new ports will be notified as Major Ports under the Indian Ports Act, 1908. Major ports come under the central government, while minor ports are operated by state governments as well as by the private sector.

There are at present 12 Major ports -- Kolkata-Halida, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Ennore, Chennai, V O Chidambaranar (formerly Tuticorin), Kochi, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru (JNPT) and Kandla.

The move to set up new ports comes after several years.

The need for a port at Sagar in West Bengal was felt as the existing ports at Kolkata and Haldia were facing capacity constraints.

The location for port in Andhra Pradesh has not yet been finalised and the state government has identified three locations - Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam, Ramayyapatnam in Prakasam and Dugarajapatnam in Nellore.

The new major ports are likely to be set up on public-private partnership (PPP) mode and will cater to increased imports of coal and oil besides boosting the local economy and generating jobs.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/go...pradesh-364905

[AbhishekDatta]

State weaves textile hope

A STAFF REPORTER

Policy push
Calcutta, May 17: The Bengal government today released a draft textile policy that proposes a range of subsidies, with extra concessions for the backward regions.

The policy divides Bengal’s districts into four zones for the administration of the subsidies.

Zone A will comprise the Calcutta Municipal Corporation area, North and South 24 Parganas, excluding the Sundarbans and Howrah.

Hooghly, Siliguri, Kharagpur, Durgapur, Asansol, Haldia and Kalyani will constitute Zone B.

Zone C will cover Burdwan, excluding the sub-divisions of Durgapur and Asansol; East Midnapore excluding Haldia; Nadia (except the sub-division of Kalyani); and Murshidabad, Malda, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts.

Zone D will include Birbhum, Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore (except Kharagpur), North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Cooch Behar and the Sundarban area of South and North 24 Parganas.

Micro-enterprises will get 15 per cent investment subsidy in Zone A, 20 per cent in Zone B, 30 per cent in Zone C and 40 per cent in Zone D.

Subsidies will be lower for small units — at 10 per cent in Zone A, 15 per cent for Zone B, 25 per cent for Zone C and 30 per cent for Zone D.

It will be lower still for medium enterprises 5 per cent for Zone A, 10 per cent for Zone B, 15 per cent for Zone C and 20 per for Zone D.

In addition, an interest subsidy of 6 per cent to all units and 7.5 per cent to units set up in the C and D zones for five years would be provided.

A provision for the reimbursement of entry tax on plant and machinery has been made after the beginning of commercial production by the unit.

Procurement of raw materials will get an entry tax reimbursement for three years, initially.

A target to set up 10 handloom clusters has been set in every district.

“While the state has a long history and tradition in textiles, there was a need for a policy road map that will revive, modernise and broadbase the Bengal textiles industry and integrate it with the global market,” Ficci senior vice-president Sidharth Birla said.

http://telegraphindia.com/1130518/js...p#.UZa-8rXqnzw

[shubho]

Two new Industry will come up in Bankura
total Investment 2800 crore.
employment -3500

According to Bartaman on 20'th May,2013 business page

[anan355]

http://www.epaper.eisamay.com/Detail...oxid=143538687




http://www.epaper.eisamay.com/Detail...oxid=143530500

[Suncity]

Win hearts: Partha’s advice to industry

http://www.telegraphindia.com/113052...p#.UZrdPWzD-M8

nvestors should “win hearts” before setting up projects in an area and hire workers from among the residents, industries minister Partha Chatterjee today said in Durgapur.

The minister’s comments at an event organised by Essar Oil Ltd came a day after the company ran into trouble with villagers, who led by a Trinamul leader, demanded the reinstatement of a sacked guard.

“Je jaigai byabsa korben, shekhankar manusher mon joy korbenna eta ki hoy? Sthaniyo manushder kaje agradikar dite hobe…. Amra biniyoger sathe niyog o chai (you want to start a business and don’t want to win the hearts of local people, can that happen? Priority should be given to recruit from among local people…. We want investment as well as employment),” he said after inaugurating an exploration and production office of Essar Oil in Durgapur.

Asked about the minister’s comments, Kallol Datta, the president of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said investors look for safety of their investment wherever they go. “It was missing during the Left era and sadly, it is still missing,” he said.

Senior Essar officials said it was not possible to fulfill each and every demand of the villagers.

“Such protests have become a practice. Sometimes they are politically motivated. If we start fulfilling every demand, they will protest every day citing different reasons,” said a senior official who did not want to be named.

The Mumbai-based company, which has invested Rs 1,500 crore to extract coal-bed methane around Durgapur has seen at least five instances of disruption of work by villagers since January this year.

Yesterday, over 60 villagers in Kanksa led by Trinamul block president Kebu Chatterjee stalled work at an under-construction water treatment plant of Essar Oil. Today, Kebu Chatterjee said he would not let work resume till the guard is taken back.

Apart from Essar, villagers, at times led by local Trinamul leaders, have in the recent months stalled work at the proposed Rs 5,000-crore Matix fertiliser plant in Panagarh over demands ranging from jobs in the factory to supply of construction material. Youths in Panagarh, who allegedly formed a syndicate, have been pressuring Matix officials to buy construction material from them.

In December last year, workers led by former local Trinamul leader Ashim Pramanik had disrupted work at the factory of Jai Balaji Industries. In March, Pramanik had led workers to lay siege to Graphite India in Durgapur.

[DFan]

KOLKATA: FICCI had submitted detailed policy suggestions to the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in December 2012 and since then has been consistently working with state government on the policy.

"While the State has a long history and tradition in textiles, but there was a need for a policy roadmap which will revive, modernize and broad base the West Bengal textiles industry and integrate it with the global market", said Mr Sidharth Birla, senior vice president, Ficci.

Other states have come up with very competitive textile policy and attracted significant investments as a result in the last few years and it was important that the state comes up with an ambitious policy to attract investments and revive this sector, Mr Birla added.

"This sector holds lot of potential in terms of employment and can provide jobs to millions in the State. The policy would help the State in achieving inclusive growth." noted Mr Birla.

Mr Sanjay Jain, managing director of the textile firm TT Ltd said that this was a very big step which has been taken by the Government and could propel the textile industry into a completely new orbit. ""Already many states like Maharashtra, Gujarat have come out with very aggressive policies over the last 18 months. West bengal has a huge potential to become the next knitwear capital of the country. This policy if finalised would change the landscape of the industry in Bengal,"" he added.

Textile industry is one of the few industries which has a very favourable man-land ratio, which makes it suitable for densely populated states like West Bengal. It would help in the development of the entire state and lead to inclusive growth through employment and skill development of the workforce.


http://articles.economictimes.indiat...-bengal-tt-ltd