Foundry park in Howrah got proposal of investment worth over Rs 2,000 crore: Min

KOLKATA: State Industry minister Partha Chatterjee on Thursday said he had been informed that the foundry park at Ranihati in Howrah received a proposal of investment of over Rs 2000 crore.

Chatterjee, who attended the inaugural programme of the 69th Indian Foundry Congress (IFC) & Indian Foundry Exhibition (IFEX) 2021, was hopeful that Howrah was poised to regain its former tag of 'Sheffield of the East' with the foundry park already in operation.

The foundry park, built on 400 acres— close to National Highway 6— already has 15 units in operations and another 150 units are coming up with a potential to generate employment for 30000 people. There are 500 foundry units in the state with a capacity of 1 million tonnes and 95 per cent of these units are concentrated in Howrah forming an informal cluster. Now, with the Foundry Park coming up in Ranihati in Howrah, Bengal is set to regain its former tag of 'Sheffield of the East.

Chatterjee said India is the second largest producer of castings in the world, next to China, and produces 11.7 million tonnes.

"There is a huge opportunity for growth in this sector and the employment potential is huge. So, the foundry sector is also one of our priority sectors. Bengal has the best climate for industrialisation with no dearth of raw materials and water, abundant power supply and skilled labour available at the cheapest cost," he said.

Chatterjee said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday itself made it clear that after emerging as number one in the social sector, the state government's target is to restore the lost glory of Bengal in the field of industry and engineering.

Vijay S. Beriwal, national president of The Institute of Indian Foundrymen said

more than 100 foundries will come up in the next 5 years in Bengal.