West Bengal - Economy and Project Developments

[SarafIndian]

On Thursday, West Bengal’s steel sector saw two mega investments to the tune of Rs 31,000 crore.

Videocon Natural Resources Ltd, floated by the Videocon Group, agreed to team up with a US company to set up a 3 million tonne steel plant along with a 1200 MW power plant in the state, entailing investments to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore.
Jai Balaji Industries Ltd, too, announced setting up of a 5 million tonne steel project and a 1215 MW captive power plant involving investment of around Rs 16,000 crore. The project will also incorporate a cement manufacturing unit based on fly ash generated by the captive power unit.

A memorandum of understandings (MoUs) between Videcon and Balaji and the state government were signed here on Thursday.

These fresh inflow of funds take the total investments a shade over Rs 90,000 crore. West Bengal is now ranked third along with Chhattisgarh among the hottest destinations for steel investments in the country.

Orissa, with an aggregate investment in steel at Rs 1,92,380 crore, is at the top followed by Jharkhand, which has a investment of Rs 1,72,496 crore riding on steel projects.

Venugopal Dhoot, chairman, Videocon Group, said the proposed steel plant and the captive power plant will come up across 3,500 acres of land, already identified by the state government along the Asansol-Durgapur industrial belt in the state.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1125552

[SarafIndian]

Some more news on that

http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/05/stor...0561051900.htm

Videocon to set up steel, power plants

To invest Rs. 15,000 cr. in West Bengal

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Government is trying its best to industrialise the State by developing manufacturing and knowledge-based industries, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Thursday.

With the Videocon group set to invest Rs. 15,000 crore in steel and power sectors in the State, Mr. Bhattacharjee pointed out that steel was important among manufacturing industries.

Videocon signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the State Government in the presence of Mr. Bhattacharjee for its three million tonne integrated steel plant and 1,200 MW power plant, to be located in the Barabani-Jamuria area in the Burdwan district. It is the company’s maiden venture into the steel sector.

Mr. Bhattacharjee said that though iron ore was not available in the State for geographical reasons, around six to seven steel companies had decided to invest in the State. The targeted investment in this sector had crossed Rs. 90,000 crore, with the potential to employ at least one lakh people.

The proposed plant is expected to manufacture value added steel that can be used by automobile and shipbuilding units. The total complex will come up on 2,500 acres and can employ 10,000 people directly and indirectly.

[SarafIndian]

Another good news for steel industry in Bengal. It seems that bengal is becoming a hot destination in south asia for steel production..

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-n...Oct-16/224728/

CM to lay foundation for Purulia steel plant on Oct 16

Kolkata, October 04 Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will lay the foundation stone of the steel plant of Jai Balaji group at Raghunathpur in Purulia on October 16.
City-based group and the state government today signed a memorandum of agreement for setting up a 5 million-tonne integrated steel plant and a cement and a captive power plant involving Rs 16,000 crore. The project would come up on a 4,000-acre land to be acquired by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.

“It is a red-letter day for the people of Purulia, which will witness a sea change in its economic life with the setting up of this steel plant,” Bhattacharjee said. While the steel plant will have a capacity of 5 million tonnes, the cement plant will have a capacity of 3 million tonnes and the power plant will generate 1215 MW per annum. A total of 3,500 acres of land will be acquired.

“The project will generate direct employment for 10,000 people and indirect employment opportunities for over 50,000,” said Aditya Jagodia, Chairman and Managing director of Jai Balaji group.

He also said that one person from each of the land losing family would be given a job in the factory.

Bhattacharjee said that a private company has come forward to build a new greenfield airport at Andal in Burdwan.

He added that since the state did not have iron ore reserves, a national policy on iron ore will be formulated soon.

[SarafIndian]

Did they start working on jindal project?.. Do anybody have any info?..

[Euromast]

//

A uto components company Avtec Ltd, which supplies engines to General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.'s local units, said it was spending up to Rs100 crore in building a factory in Kharagpur, West Bengal.
The unit will supply engine and transmission components for the Rs1 lakh car that Tata Motors Ltd, the country's largest auto maker by revenue, proposes to roll out next year, said Sudhir Rao, chief executive of Avtec. Rao declined to give details on how the company would raise the Rs100 crore needed for expansion.

Avtec-which is 49% owned by Hindustan Motors Ltd, the makers of the Ambassador car-will start making components for 150,000 cars a year and for 35,000 other types of vehicles, Rao said.

Tata Motors is building a factory in Singur, West Bengal, to make 250,000 cars a year, starting 2008, and hopes to make as many as a million cars a year eventually by farming out assembly to other factories in the country.

As many as 40 vendors are building factories in Singur exclusively for the small car project, and Tata Motors has promised many vendors that they would be its single source for components for five years from the start of production if they continued to meet cost and delivery norms.

Rao didn't say if he was a single-source vendor for the Rs1 lakh car.

Avtec is also talking to small auto component firms, with sales of around €30-50 million (Rs167-279 crore), in Europe and the US for acquisitions, Rao said.

Avtec, which had revenues of Rs570 crore in 2006-07, wanted to acquire these companies for design expertise and technology, he added.

[SarafIndian]

http://sify.com/finance/equity/fulls...hp?id=14539576

MMTC to invest Rs 145 cr in jewellery retail biz
Monday, 08 October , 2007, 17:32

Kolkata: The state-run MMTC Limited will invest Rs 145 crore to foray into jewellery retail business and set up a medallion and gold refinery unit through joint ventures.

The public sector enterprise also contemplates to go for a separate joint venture for setting up of a jewellery SEZ in West Bengal.

Deciding to go for initial public offering(IPO) for the proposed Rs 100-crore medallion and gold refinery project in tandem with a foreign partner, MMTC has already short listed three companies who participated in bidding following an expression of interest, Chief General Manager, Resources Asish Majumder said here today.

"Our board will meet this month over this issue. We are now awaiting permission from the Industry Ministry," Majumder said.

MMTC was in dialogues with Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka Governments who had offered land for the proposed project.

Planning an initial investment of Rs 45 crore for the proposed jewellery retail business, the company was looking to rope in an Indian partner to set up 50 outlets across the country in three years.

“In the first year we intend to set up 20 retail outlets and increase the number to 20 in the second and 50 in the third year. We are preferring an Indian partner for this venture, the funds for which would be mobilised through equity participation, but we are also open to foreign participation," Majumder said.

For both the gold refinery and jewellery retailing business, MMTC proposed to hold 26 per cent equity in the joint venture companies leaving 24 for the partners and the rest for financial institutions.

In reply to a question, Majumder said the company was in talks with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) for the proposed SEZ in jewellery and appointed PriceWater House Coopers as consultant for carrying out the feasibility study.

The proposed project would require 75 to 100 acres of land, he said.

[SarafIndian]

From TOI

Vodafone to connect all West Bengal villages by 2009
8 Oct, 2007, 1550 hrs IST, PTI

KOLKATA: Vodafone Essar East would connect all villages in West Bengal by 2009, a top company official said on Monday.

All villages of the state would be connected in the next one to one-and-a-half years, company's chief executive officer Sridhar Rao told reporters here.

He said quality of services would improve as a consequence of Vodafone buying a controlling stake in Essar, but would take some time.

Rao said the company was increasing cell sites for better services. "In Kolkata alone, the company was adding 50 to 60 cell sites," he said.

At present, the company has 1,400 cell sites in Kolkata, an 1,900 in the Bengal circle.

Rao said the company would also launch Vodafone-branded GSM phones priced at Rs 1,199.

[SarafIndian]

From Telegraph:-

Steel plant foundation
Calcutta, Oct. 9: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will lay the foundation stone for two steel plants at Raghunathpur on October 16.

Jay Balaji and Adhunik Group will build the factories in backward Purulia.

Commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen will chair a meeting on October 15 to review pending industrial projects. They include the Salim Group’s proposed Mahabharat motorcycle factory and New Kolkata International Development project

[SarafIndian]

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...1150420700.htm

Tata Steel keen to build captive jetty on Haldia river front

Project cost estimated at Rs 100 crore

“The projected increase in our traffic calls for a dedicated berthing and handling facility captive in nature at Haldia.” – Mr B. Muthuraman

Santanu Sanyal


Haldia, Oct 10 Tata Steel is keen to have its own jetty on the river front at Haldia.

“We will design, construct and develop our own captive riverine jetty at Haldia to meet our export-import throughput requirement,” says Mr B. Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata Steel, in a letter to the Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust.

Jetty features


The letter also explains the kind of facility Tata Steel would like to have. The location of the jetty should be outside the lockgate but not far from the existing oil jetties on the riverfront.

The proposed jetty will primarily handle clean cargo and have the final capacity of two million tonnes (mt) annually. The draft of the Hooghly river at the jetty should be the same as that at present.

There should be an open back up storage space of 15 acres with a railway siding of 800 metres. The cost of the project complete with two mobile harbour cranes and back up area has been estimated at Rs 100 crore.

To finish project in 2 yrs


Setting the time limit for the project, the Tata Steel Managing Director has expressed his desire to have the jetty commissioned on September 1, 2009, exactly two years from now. The plan is to sign the concession agreement by May 2008, start construction of the jetty and development of backup facilities by September next year and complete construction and installation of equipment by August 2009.

Tata Steel’s current throughput of export-import traffic at Haldia is around two million tonnes, around 90 per cent being the import of raw materials such as coking coal, limestone, coke and other materials. The raw material requirement is projected to rise many times more with the completion of the expansion of the company’s Jamshedpur plant, from the present five million tonnes to seven mt by the middle of 2008 and further to 10 mt by 2010. Tata Steel also proposes to set up at Jharkhand a greenfield steel plant of the capacity of 12 mt in two phases.

“The projected increase in our traffic calls for a dedicated berthing and handling facility captive in nature at Haldia which is and will continue to be an important gateway to exports and imports of not only Tata Steel but also other group companies,” Mr Muthuraman has observed.

It might be noted that a few years ago TM International Logistics, a joint venture between Tata Steel and Martrade of Germany, acquired on long-term lease a berth (No. 12) at Haldia for captive use. The throughput of the berth was 1.17 mt in 2005-06, 0.89 mt in 06-07 and 5.34 lakh tonnes so far in the current fiscal.

Haldia-based Hooghly Metcoke, a joint venture between Tata Steel and West Bengal Government to produce coke for steel plants, too has shown interest in having its river front jetty at Haldia, it is learnt.

[sidney_jec]

Source: Telegraph India

Four new bays for Bagdogra

Bagdogra airport: Getting ready for more passengers
Bagdogra, Oct. 10: Bagdogra airport will have four more parking bays by Puja next year, allowing seven aircraft to anchor there at any given time.

“The work order for apron extension has already been issued and the job is expected to be completed by next Puja,” said airport director K.K. Bhaumik. The apron is that part of the aerodrome which is set aside for loading, unloading or maintaining aircraft.

The Airports Airport Authority of India (AAI) has allocated Rs 18 crore for the project, the director added.

At the moment, the three existing bays at the airport are just enough for the four flights that come in and go on an average every day.

“With all these flights operating between 12 noon and 4pm, the bays are just enough to handle the traffic. But if there is an increase in flights and airlines, especially during those four hours, it may become difficult to get by with just three bays. That is why we are building four more,” Bhaumik said.

The Indian Air Force, which runs the Bagdogra air base and manages the runway and other basic requirements and facilities, has given a no-objection certificate to the apron extension project, which will take up about 48,000 square metres of additional tarmac area.

“In fact, we have given permission for the construction of three more bays (on top of the four to be constructed now), but I hear that the AAI will construct them in the second phase,” said Group Captain Chandramouli, the station commander of Bagdogra air force base.

However, he could not say when the second phase would begin.

There are also talks of a new terminal building. “A preliminary round of discussion was held recently between the AAI, the district administration and the air force for the construction of a second terminal building to cope with the increase in passenger flow,” said Bhaumik.

“When the airport does get international status, the old building will be the international terminal, while the new one will handle domestic traffic,” the director added.

The airport is yet to get signal from the civil aviation ministry for upgrade to international status, but there is no let up in preparations for it. Bhaumik was among the three AAI directors who attended a seven-day course in Switzerland on international airport management last month.

In addition, a new automatic door opening mechanism has been installed at the exit point of Bagdogra airport and a foreign exchange counter is on the anvil.

But Bhaumik warned that even after the permission for upgrade comes, several steps must be taken before the airport actually gets international status. These include setting up of customs and immigration, plant quarantine and a health check-up centre and more counters, besides a separate terminal building,” the airport director said.

[SarafIndian]

From TOI

Balco plans Rs 5,000 cr power plant in W Bengal

KOLKATA: Anil Agarwal's Vedanta group is exploring the possibility of setting up a 1400-1500 MW coal-based thermal power plant in Bengal at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore.

The $4 billion group is examining the modalities of putting up the project at Burdwan, the state's coal belt, and proposes to implement the venture through Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco). Currently, Vedanta has a token presence in Bengal through India Foils.

"Balco may float a special purpose vehicle for the Bengal project, which would be a standalone power plant in the IPP (independent power producer) mode," sources said. Balco runs a 810 MW captive power plant at Korba in Chattisgarh.

State government officials declined to comment on the Vedanta interest. It is still unclear how much land would be needed for the project, if it materialises. The picture is equally hazy on whether Vedanta would directly acquire land for the venture.

Videocon's proposed 1200 MW power plant near Burdwan has a land requirement of 1,000 acre. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has promised to acquire land on Videocon's behalf. The state is also arranging land for RPG Enterprises flagship CESC's 1,000 MW plant at Haldia. Agarwal, commonly called as the non ferrous metal czar of India, has already entered power generation the IPP way through Sterlite Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of the group's India flagship, Sterlite Industries.

"Construction of the Jharsuguda plant has already started. As a group, we are venturing into stand alone power projects. SEL has also applied for coal blocks," sources added.

Sources said, Balco, which the group bought in 2001 through divestment process of the government, is on an expansion spree. "It has announced an investment outlay of Rs 8,100 crore to set up a smelter. Once this happens, Balco will become the biggest single location aluminium plant in the world

[SarafIndian]

From CPI(M) party website

Bengal To Set Up Plastic And Steel Hubs

THE chemical hub as proposed to come up at Nayachar plus the existing production units of the Haldia petro-chemicals shall produce a vast quantity of first-rate plastic products in various stages of ‘finishing.’ The sheer vastness of the quantum of produce will set up imperatives to create ‘plastic hubs’ to centralise and consolidate the thousands upon thousands of employment-intensive downstream units that would go in for mass scale and fully diversified fabrication taking off of the mainstream units.

The time has come for the Bengal Left Front government to probe seriously into the possibilities of establishing ‘plastic hubs’ at suitable places. Thus said Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently, while speaking at a full business session of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI) in Kolkata.

Lately, Buddhadeb who has been speaking frequently and with serious intent of the process of ‘thinking ahead’ and ‘anticipation of developmental initiatives’ while dwelling on the emerging industrialisation drive in Bengal said that fixing up the locational points for the downstream units would soon become as important as the placement of the industrial units, or mainstream production itself.

DOWNSTREAM HUBS



A similar need, said Buddhadeb, was being felt quite keenly about downstream hubs for the large steel factories that were coming up. Apart from the factory at Salboni, two other industrial groups have been proposed with the product-mix ready, at Burdwan and Purulia. When ‘on-line’ the quantum of steel produced would be massive, with employment provided to over one lakh of people and more — directly and indirectly — through ancillaries and downstream units. A total of just under Rs 100 crore would be invested. More investment proposals were in the proverbial pipeline.



To come to grips with the expected production overreach, one needed hubs to ‘discipline’ the massive flow downstream, or the market forces will take over completely. Buddhadeb has already appealed to the chambers of commerce to create working groups to look into the issues and submit reports; interim reports may come in as early as possible. He iterated the appeal at the BNCCI meeting as well drawing a hearty and positive response from the floor.

Buddhadeb also told the BNCCI meeting that the state Left Front government was keen to draft a rehabilitation policy for the land losers in the instances of industrial projects. He looked to the chambers of commerce including the BNCCI for key and practical inputs, and other relevant proposals. With the agricultural land abounding Bengal, a success of the Left Front government itself, any industrial imitative would see agricultural land being taken over. Added to the dimensions of the existing predicament were the twin facts of pressure of population per acre of land in Bengal, and the rate of growth of population.

The chief minister flayed the strong inclination of the UPA government for a Fund-Bank dictated strategy of ‘jobless growth.’ Even if the rate of growth of the economy is pegged at 8, 9, or even at 10 per cent -- what good it would do to the teeming millions if sufficient jobs were not created. The rate of employment had plunged down to four per cent and dropping further.

It was a great pity, regretted Buddhadeb, that the UPA government chose to gloss over Bengal’s suggestion at a past meeting of the National Development Council on the eve of the drafting of the Eleventh Five-year Plan that targets of employment must be fixed for such vital sectors as agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and services before the matrix of the planning process was drawn up and gone into. The mass suicide of farmers in Congress and BJP-run states have been a direct fall out of the skewed and anti-people planning, he asserted.

ROAD AHEAD

After briefly explaining the Left stand on SEZs and speaking in short on the issue of opening of closed factories, Buddhadeb itemised the road ahead for Bengal in terms of development.

A small airport would be commissioned at Behala in the southern suburbs of Kolkata

Small airports will be made operational at Barrackpore, Kanchrapara (at north 24 Parganas in the heartland of industries), and at Coochbehar in north Bengal

Air travel between Kolkata airport and airports in China will be increased following the opening of the Chinese consular office in the metropolis

Lufthansa will soon run daily flights Kolkata-Frankfurt-Kolkata

Air France will resume services from the metropolis

Work of the east-west metro rail project will take place soon

January of next year will witness the commencement of the process of modernisation of the Kolkata international airport

[SarafIndian]

http://www.business-standard.com/com...N&autono=28729

Haldia Sports City: Srei in talks with hotel groups

Srei Infrastructure is in the process of negotiations with some hotel groups for setting up business hotels at the Haldia International Sports City - the first of its kind in the country.

The construction of the world-class stadium and residential appartments is scheduled for completion within the next two years, Hemant Kanoria, chairman, Srei Infrastructure, said.

The sports city is being built on an area of 65 acre at an investment of Rs450 crore. The entire city is to be readied within five years.

[SarafIndian]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/2461396.cms

Italian trade office in Kolkata from January 2008

KOLKATA: The Italian Trade Commission's office in Kolkata would be fully operational from January 2008, a senior Italian official said on Monday.

"The trade office would open shortly, but it would be in full service from January 2008," Counsulate General of Italy in Kolkata Bruno Campria said at an interactive session organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

He also announced that the second round assistance of about 3.5 million euro would be provided by Italy to RoopKala Kendra, a centre of film study in association with Italy.

Bruno said there were trade opportunities between India and Italy.

With West Bengal, he said, there was trade opportunities in food processing and leather businesses.

India's exports to Italy increased from 883 million euro in 2001-02 to 2,678 million euro in 2006-07. Italy's export to India grew from 516 million to 1945 million euro.

It would be the commission's third trade development office after New Delhi and Mumbai

[SarafIndian]

From Statesman

Auto component park in Bengal

KOLKATA, Oct. 16: The West Bengal government has taken a final decision on its proposed auto component park slated to come up in West Midnapore district.
"The auto component park will be built over an area of 500 acres at Guptamoni", state industry and commerce minister, Mr Nirupam Sen said speaking on the sidelines of a conference organised by VDMA here today. "We have identified the developer. The infrastructure of the park will be developed by Bengal Shristi" Mr Sen said.
As regards land acquisition for the project, the minister said that Bengal Shristi will directly purchase the land from the land owners. Asked whether it will get an SEZ status, Mr Sen said, that has not been decided yet.
The objective of the auto component park, apart from creating huge employment opportunities, is to cater to the increasing requirement of auto parts by automobile companies which are of late trickling into the state with investment proposals.
Mr Sen was addressing a German business delegation brought to the state by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA).
He said the state will try by all means to assist German companies which intend to invest in the state. The delegation comprised of 16 members from 12 companies across eight different sectors.

[SarafIndian]

http://www.expresstravelworld.com/200710/market21.shtml

Kerala and West Bengal to work closely for tourism promotion

Joy Roy Choudhury - Kolkata

The tourism departments of Kerala and West Bengal plan to work more closely in the years to come to increase the flow of tourists between the two states. "We want to work out a bilateral arrangement between ourselves, so that we can increase the flow of tourists from Kerala to West Bengal and vice-versa", Dr Venu V, secretary, Kerala Tourism told Express TravelWorld.

As a step towards this direction, a strong 30-member delegation headed by Dr Venu and consisting of top tourism department officials, hoteliers and tour operators were in the city to showcase the 'God's own Country' in Kolkata. "We will shortly open our tourist office in Kolkata to facilitate travel to this southern state," Dr Venu continues. He said, Manabendra Mukherjee, the tourism minister of West Bengal who visited Kerala few months back had mooted such an arrangement. "We share many things in common, our love for fish and football is well known, besides, we share a strong cultural relationship," he added.

Dr Venu also emphasised on increasing the air-connectivity between the two states. Adding to that he said, to increase flow of domestic tourists into the state, Kerala Tourism has identified six focus markets. Besides, West Bengal the other five markets are Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Meanwhile, Kerala Tourism has framed programmes like 'Synergy Quest', 'Let's Learn', 'Wake Up To Malabar', 'Pioneering Responsible Tourism' and 'Dream Season' to sustain the growth it has been registering in the past few years. "We want to promote new experiences, including monsoon tourism, plantations, soft adventure experiences, culinary tourism and village tourism by staying at the 500-odd home stays," said Dr Venu.

With a promotional budget of only Rs 14 crore to campaign worldwide, the state has been able to mop up more than Rs 9,000 crore from tourism in 2006-07 of which 30 per cent is foreign exchange earnings. K G Mohanlal, managing director, Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC), who was also a part of the delegation said, "KTDC is rebranding 11 of its hotels to suit the varied needs of the budget tourists."

"We want to dispel the notion of the budget traveller that the state is a very expensive destination," concluded Dr Venu.

[SarafIndian]

Again some good news on states steel production
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/2465121.cms

Durgapur steel plant : Leading the way

Durgapur Steel Plant,a 1.8 MT crude steel producing integrated steel unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited was set up in the late 50’s. Its initial capacity was 1 million tonne of crude steel per annum. It was subsequently enhanced to 1.6 million tonnes in the late sixties.

A large-scale modernisation programme was undertaken in early nineties primarily to enhance the capacity to 1.802 MT, improve yield, conserve energy, reduce cost of production and minimise environmental pollution. Ever since its inception, DSP has been instrumental in triggering the development of the region and in turn the industrial development of the country.

Today it is the largest and the leading industrial unit in West Bengal. In 2006-07, DSP exported about 23000 tonnes of steel, which was 14% of the total saleable steel produced. In fact, DSP is the only forged wheel producer in India and meets almost the entire requirement of BG Coaching and Loco Wheels for Indian Railways.

The quality of wheels conforms to international standards. In 2006-07, DSP supplied 66,532 wheels of world-class quality to Indian Railways and is planning to further improve upon the same in 2007-08. However, with a view to meet the demands of the domestic market and add variety to its product basket, Durgapur Steel Plant has developed various niche products for catering to the infrastructure, agriculture and automobile segments.

Financially, DSP has been performing really well. In the fiscal 2006-07, the plant notched up 1.70 million tons of Saleable Steel production, 1.87 million tons of Crude Steel and 2.06 million tons of Hot Metal, which were 107%, 104% and almost 100% of rated capacities respectively. V Shyamsundar, managing director, DSP says, "Our people are our greatest strength.

Their competence and capabilities can be compared with the best in the industry. At SAIL, DSP we believe not only in contributing to the economic development and modernisation of the country but also are committed to further our efforts towards the upliftment of the poor, downtrodden, physically challenged and extending a helping hand to the society at large in many ways.”

[SarafIndian]

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-n...-plant/232220/

Bankura to get biggest solar plant

Kolkata, October 24 The state plans to set up one of the biggest solar power plants in the country at Bankura at a cost of around Rs 100 to 110 crore. The plant is expected to generate 5 MW of solar power per day by the beginning of 2010.
At present, the largest existing solar power plant in the country, which generates 500 KW of solar power per day, is in Maharashtra. The project is being promoted by a company called Astonfield Renewable Resources Limited (ARRL), a owned subsidiary of the Astonfield Management Limited (AML), a company based in Geneva and USA. ARRL will develop the renewal energy power project on a BOO (build -own-operate) model.

Astonfield and its America-based partner SunEdison, will jointly develop the project. “We have submitted the proposal to the government and they are looking into various aspects such as tariff and license. We hope to start construction by December and production should start in the next 12 to 14 months time,” said Sourabh Sen, AML Director.

AML officials later met the CM at Writers’ Building and discussed prospective investment avenues. During their deliberations, Sen said that AML and other companies would be willing to expand their solar power generation capacity to up to 2,000 MW.

Sen told Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that across all the three verticals in which Astonfield has a presence, the company would be willing to invest up to $1 billion in the state.

The solar power plant is one in the slew of renewable power projects that ARRL has planned for the state. Other projects include a 10 MW biomass project at South Dinajpur to produce power from rice husk, a 1 MW biogas project at Kalyani, a 6 MW solid waste-to-power project at Howrah and a 25 MW solid waste-to-power project at Dhapa in Kolkata.

[SarafIndian]

Economictimes

Bengal receives 2nd highest investments in Aug-Sep

KOLKATA: West Bengal has been placed as the second highest recipient of investments in the country during August and September 2007, a study by Assocham Eco Pulse said.

The state received investment totalling Rs 31,200 crore during the two months, while Orissa topped the list with Rs 55,800 crore.

Maharashtra was the third with Rs 9,834 crore, followed by Andhra Pradesh with Rs 8,594 crore.

The Assocham study said that the major investments announced during the two-month period were those of Jai Balaji (Rs 16,000 crore), Indian Oil Corporation (Rs 14,500 crore) and DLF (Rs 700 crore).

Across the country covering 10 states, total investments announced during the period totalled Rs 1,26,640 crore in various sectors like petroleum, steel, cement, real estate, IT, media, retail, telecom and others.

Tamil Nadu was the least recipient receiving Rs 1,725 crore.

Capital expenditure programme of petroleum sector was the highest at Rs 53,800 crore.

[SarafIndian]

TOI

Nandigram not to hit Bengal fund flow: Dhoot


Leading industry body Assocham on Wednesday allayed fears of investments slowing down in Bengal following the fresh bout of violence in Nandigram by asserting that the state's business case remained strong despite the clashes.

On Tuesday, Bengal home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy had described Nandigram a "veritable battlefield".

"Nandigram is too small an area to affect the entire state. We see no reason to revise our forecast of investments worth Rs 100,000 crore flowing into Bengal over the five years," Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot told TOI.

"Impact (of the current tension), if any, is likely to be restricted to Nandigram." Dhoot said the state's fundamentals have not changed by what is currently happening in Nandigram.

"We continue to believe that the state has the potential to grow at 12% annually on a sustained basis. It is this view which is prompting businessmen in the countryto pump in money in Bengal," he said.

The Assocham boss said investor confidence in CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has not dipped since supporters of CPM and Trinamul Congress-led Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee got involved in their latest battle over control of turf.

"We have full faith in the industrial policies being pursued by the chief minister