At least 4K job opportunities and Rs 2,666cr investment proposed in ethanol production sector

Kolkata: With a roadmap created to make Bengal "number one" in industry and commerce following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's initiative to set up the West Bengal Industrial Promotion Board, the state has started receiving its benefit as proposals for investment in almost all crucial sectors started pouring in leading to creation of massive job opportunities including 14,000 in ethanol production and textile sector.

Within a week after announcing the Ethanol Production Promotion Policy, the state government has received 15 proposals to set up ethanol manufacturing units that would lead to an investment of Rs 2,666 crore and create 4,000 employment opportunities.

This comes when the state is excess in production of both the raw materials–maize and rice bran–that is required for ethanol production.

The textile sector is also going to play a crucial role in creating job opportunities as the state government is setting up integrated textile park at Habra and operationalising the spinning mills in North 24-Parganas and South Dinajpur.

The Chief Minister along with Industry minister Partha Chatterjee, Finance Minister Amit Mitra, MSME minister Chandranath Sinha and Power minister Aroop Biswas held the first meeting of the state's industrial promotion board on Wednesday. Besides reviewing the outcome after introducing the West Bengal Data Centre Policy, Ethanol Production Promotion Policy and Industrial Park Policy, the board has focused on attracting investment for both large industries and MSME sector.

Senior officers including Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and Managing Director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited (WBIDCL) were also present in the

meeting.

The Chief Secretary later announced that around 1,200 acres of land has been identified at Dadanpatrabar for development of Tajpur Port and the tender would be floated for the same in this connection.

He also announced that the state government is eyeing to attract more investment through setting up of high end IT industry including cloud development and artificial intelligence. Already, Hiranandani group has shown interest in setting up its data centre in Hooghly when reliance is developing one at New Town.

A major part of the gas pipeline project of GAIL from Baraoni to Burdwan has also been completed in the state.