NOVEMBER: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday unveiled a new investment promotion policy aimed at attracting industries and generating employment opportunities in the state.
The West Bengal Investment Promotion Policy 2026, released after the formation of the first BJP government in the state in May, focuses on accelerating investments in heavy, medium and small industries, generating employment, ensuring transparent land allocation, providing industry-friendly infrastructure and offering higher incentives to businesses in priority areas and thrust sectors.
Promising a more time-bound and transparent investment promotion process through online applications, Suvendu, while addressing the launch programme at Eco Park in New Town, announced separate incentive packages offering assistance of up to 120 per cent for investments in plant and machinery in the state.
The new policy also promises significant benefits, including a 100 per cent exemption from stamp duty for non-profit service sector units such as hospitals, medical colleges, universities, IT, tourism, finance and education institutions.
The policy also provides incentives for small, medium and large industries across sectors.
Suvendu also assured that his government would take steps to attract investment to Singur in Hooghly district.
After unveiling the new investment promotion policy, the Chief Minister said his government would do something for Singur.
"We have already spoken to the heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland for an investment of Rs 650 crore in Singur," he said, without clarifying whether car manufacturing units would be set up there.
In 2008, the Tata Group withdrew its small car project, involving an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore, from Singur and shifted it to Sanand in Gujarat. The move followed a land agitation led by the then Opposition Trinamool Congress, headed by Mamata Banerjee, against the alleged forcible acquisition of fertile land belonging to unwilling farmers by the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led Left Front government.
Suvendu Adhikari was a prominent Trinamool Congress leader during the Singur movement.
Mamata Banerjee reaped political dividends from the Singur land movement in 2011, when she became Chief Minister after defeating the CPI(M)-led Left Front government. However, no major industries came up in Singur during the Trinamool Congress government's 15-year tenure.
Setting up a major industry in Singur was also an electoral promise made by the BJP during the West Bengal Assembly elections.
"We won't fire at farmers in the name of land acquisition for industries. We are very clear on two things. We will not use the police to forcibly acquire land, and we will not allow bullets to be fired (as happened during the Left Front government). We also won't say that we are the government and will not get involved in procuring land for industry," he said, referring to his predecessor Mamata Banerjee's hands-off land policy.
"We will purchase land ourselves. Talks are on with HUDCO, NABARD and ADB for funds to purchase land. We have handed over land to companies in Panagarh and Haringhata," he added.
He said the government had, over the past six months, handed over land to 33 business groups, including Amul, the Vedanta Group, Campa Cola and Reliance, to set up new plants or expand their existing operations.
"We have around two crore educated unemployed youth in our state. Around 70 lakh migrant workers from Bengal have left for other states in search of jobs. We won't indulge in the gimmicks of the previous Trinamool Congress government by organising annual mega events such as the Bengal Business Summit and spending crores of rupees. Despite the expenditure, nothing was done to attract investments. We won't follow that approach," Suvendu said.
Senior ministers, including Tapas Roy, Swapan Dasgupta, Dilip Ghosh and Agnimitra Paul, along with industrialists and business representatives, attended the programme.