Kolkata: Badly needing investment to usher in development and jobs in the debt-stressed state, the West Bengal government kick-started a fresh investors’ meet roping in business representatives from 20 countries besides India.
By the end of the day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed to have received commitment of over Rs93,000cr, none of which was from the private sector. The day one of the two-day summit was attended by over 1,000 business delegates, as also leading figures of the central government — Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley and Shipping, Highways and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
“The minister of shipping today announced projects in Bengal for Rs41,600cr, then (state-run) SAIL announced investing Rs40,000cr,” Banerjee said in her speech that brought the curtains on the day’s proceedings.
Refering to Jaitley’s comment in the summit that Bengal would be a major beneficiary of the coal block auction which is in the offing, Banerjee said: “If you add the share of the auction of coal blocks of Rs12,000cr it (the total commitment on the opening day of the summit) will Rs93,600cr only for today.”
“If in one day it is more than one lakh crore, tomorrow it will be more than our expectations,” she said giving the closing address on day one of the two-day summit here. IANS
