West Bengal rolls out investment push under new government

West Bengal has attracted investment commitments worth over Rs 28,000 crore in the first two months of the BJP government, with several thousand crore more in the pipeline, according to state ministers.

State industry, commerce and enterprises minister Tapas Roy told ET that chief minister Suvendu Adhikari's office is directly spearheading efforts to revive industrialisation in the state.

"A lot of the effort is being driven by the chief minister himself. We want to bring back industrialisation that will generate large-scale employment," Roy said.


Roy said officials from Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi are expected to visit the state later this month to finalise the location for a proposed semiconductor manufacturing project. Company executives had earlier met state ministers to discuss the proposal. He declined to disclose the investment size or project details, but it is likely to be a fabrication unit.

Mitsubishi Electric manufactures semiconductors used in sectors such as home appliances, automobiles, energy and data centres.

Since assuming office on May 9, chief minister Adhikari has held meetings with several India Inc leaders, including ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri, L&T chairman S.N. Subrahmanyan, Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka, Amul managing director Jayen Mehta, and Adani Ports & SEZ managing director Karan Adani, besides several industrialists from the state.

The Rs 28,000 crore investment pipeline includes ITC's Rs 2,300-crore manufacturing and business expansion, L&T's proposed Rs 4,500-crore AI data centre expected to generate 25,000 jobs, JSW Infrastructure's Rs 832-crore investment in the Kolkata Dock System, Amul's Rs 650-crore dairy expansion, Berger Paints and Peerless' combined Rs 1,600-crore investments, and Adani Group's proposed Rs 2,500-crore hospital and medical college.

The investment size of Mitsubishi's proposed semiconductor project has not been disclosed. Separately, the Adani Group is also pursuing its proposed deep-sea port at Tajpur. Among local companies, Lux Industries plans to invest Rs 600 crore, while Shyam Steel has announced Rs 15,000 crore to expand its manufacturing footprint.

Kolkata-headquartered ITC Ltd chairman Sanjiv Puri recently told ET that the company plans to expand all its businesses in West Bengal, the only state where every ITC business vertical has a presence. The expansion will include capacity addition at its Tribeni paperboard facility, investments in solar power, more hotels and scaling up its IT business.

“The expectation is that the state will witness accelerated development and a lot more investments in infrastructure in days to come. Capital tends to follow opportunity and demand. There is no dearth of capital in the country. Hopefully, we will also soon witness some more impetus on ease of doing business in the state,” Puri said.

The government has said it will undertake multiple steps for ease of doing business such as easy single window clearance, land bank, time-bound approvals, sector-specific policies for electronics, semiconductors, data centres, logistics, food processing and textiles.

State urban development and municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul said on social media platform X that West Bengal is poised to reclaim its position as a leading investment destination through transparent governance, policy stability and industry-friendly reforms.

A key member of the state cabinet, Paul said the government will restore investor confidence, accelerate industrialisation, create lakhs of jobs and put Bengal back on the path to becoming India's growth engine. “The era of fear and stagnation is ending. The era of investment, industry and employment is about to begin," she said.