A new greenfield integrated industrial township, Jungle Sundari Karmanagari, will be set up by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) at Raghunathpur in Purulia on 2,483 acres at an initial cost of Rs1,148 crores and already a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been formed, announced state finance minister Amit Mitra.

Speaking through video conferencing at the South Bengal Business Conclave and Synergy South Bengal organised jointly by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and WBIDC at ITC Fortune Hotel in Durgapur today, Mitra said about 200 acres of additional land has been separately kept for the Dankuni- Ludhiana dedicated freight corridor industrial hub and handed over to the central government.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already announced the integrated industrial township project in the budget and the state is in possession of the land already. Besides, residential township, commercial hub, institutional hub, road, infrastructure, industry will be set up,” he added.

As per the master plan, about 1.5 lakhs new jobs will be created and out of the initial investment of Rs1,148 crores, Rs 558 crores of land price will be converted to equity. The SPV will run the industrial park and will have a metallurgical processing industry like sponge iron, steel, cement,auto components, ceramics, electricals and electronic equipment manufacturing. The state government has already applied for the environmental clearance of the proposed mega industrial township project.

“Raghunathpur’s upcoming industrial township project will be a game changer in this region and there will be nodal links with all the other South Bengal districts.

Despite Covid-19 pandemic about Rs 2,010 crores have been invested in the state in the past two years and about 24,049 new jobs have been created and in the next one year about Rs1,500 to Rs2,000 crores will be invested in other new projects and about 15,000 people will get job opportunity.

Rajiva Sinha, chairman of WBIDC and WBIIDC told The Statesman on the sidelines of the conclave that a total of Rs1,800 crores will be used for setting up the infrastructure of the township by the state and the expected total investment amount is Rs 62,000 crores.

“Already nine major cement industries have been set up in the state and Dalmia cement is going for further expansion. In Raghunathpur, Reliance Cement and another three units have already expressed interest to set up plants on 400 acres of land,” said Sinha.

Rajesh Pandey, principal secretary of MSME and Textiles said that the website will be further upgraded in the next three to four months and all online applications will be processed through a simple single window system.

The Phase IV expansion of Barjora Industrial Park in Bankura will be on further 25 acres of land, Mitra said.