Buddhadeb Interacted With Coimbatore Industrialists
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (third left) interacting with the industrialists in the city on Monday. West Bengal Minister for Commerce and Industries Nirupam Sen (second left) and Chairman of Rajapalayam Mills Ltd P.R. Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha (second right), Chairman of SIMA K.V. Srinivasan (left) and President of CODISSIA C. Muthuswamy (right) are in the picture. The West Bengal Government has invited the Coimbatore textile and manufacturing units to explore investment opportunities there. “We want them to explore opportunities to set up units in West Bengal.”
Representatives of various industrial associations of Coimbatore had a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here on Tuesday. Later, Industries and Commerce Minister of West Bengal Nirupam Sen told presspersons that there was a positive response from the manufacturing and textile sectors here. Tamil Nadu, and Coimbatore in particular, was advanced in textiles. Tamil Nadu had 40 per cent of the country’s textile sector. And, the industry had the potential to generate massive employment, especially for women.
“We want them to explore opportunities to set up units in West Bengal.” The industries here sought some facilities and incentives such as uninterrupted power supply at reasonable prices. He said West Bengal was in the process of setting up some textile parks and had a textile policy. It had a good pertrochemical industrial base and this threw open opportunities for downstream projects using synthetic fibre as raw material.
Managing Director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation M.V. Rao told The Hindu that the State had proposals for 13 new steel plants. Huge investments were happening in the power sector too. It already had a foundry cluster and the Government was creating a foundry park. “We want to create textile clusters in West Bengal,” he said.
The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) could replicate the textile park proposal it had for Andhra Pradesh in West Bengal too. Mr. Rao said a delegation could visit West Bengal and see the successful projects. In a memorandum submitted to the West Bengal Chief Minister the SIMA sought inclusion of textile industry under Public Utility Services as in Andhra Pradesh to infuse confidence to investors on the labour front.
The West Bengal should also provide trial run permission with consent to establish order to reduce the duration of the project. It should encourage shore-based textile process houses and provide incentives to train the textile workers.
02.04.2008.
