At a time, when his dream project of Tata Motors small car factory in Singur started winding up due to land agitation, silently another and more specifically even bigger industry started taking shape. The Rs 18,032-crore modernization of IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) in Burnpur, of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is still regarded as the biggest success story in the field of industrialisation in the state by the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattachajee.

In fact, many old timers at IISCO, Burnpur still feel that it was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who ushered a new dawn in steel making in West Bengal. Over two decades, the modernisation of IISCO was discussed but never took place since the 1980s.

Talking to The Statesman today, Pulin Chandra Pan, former chairman of IISCO Officers Association (IOA), who now stays in Asansol, said that the IISCO fraternity will never forget the contribution of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, first for the merger with SAIL and then for the ultimate modernization of the century-old iron and steel plant.

“Buddhadeb Babu did a trick. He fixed up a meeting with Navin Jindal in Mumbai. News was passed on to the then steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan. At that time, SAIL was in dire need of IISCO’s iron ore mines such as Gua, Chiria and Manoharpur. This proposal had put SAIL on the tenterhooks and both steel minister and the SAIL chairman rushed to meet Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and assured him that IISCO will be made a unit of SAIL and modernizations of the plant will start immediately,” said Pulin Chandra Pan.

Accordingly, modernisation of IISCO was included in the common minimum programme of the UPA-1 government, led by Dr Manmohan Singh and supported by the left front.

“I remember those days, how much help we have received from the West Bengal government and without their help the plant construction would not have started. He was the police minister also and the police helped us to continue construction work of world famous contractors, both from India and abroad, during the land agitation and ultimately was sorted. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, along with industries minister Nirupam Sen and Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan were present at the foundation stone laying ceremony of IISCO Steel Plant in Burnpur along with SAIL top brass. It is very sad that except Dr Singh all the three other leaders are no more with us,” said Nilotpol Roy, former managing director of IISCO plant.

Former state minister and Asansol MP and chairman of ADDA, Bansa Gopal Choudhury also said that without Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, neither modernization of IISCO nor reopening of Bengal paper Mill in Raniganj would have taken place.

“He had made a committee for IISCO and made me chairman of the committee and instructed me to look after all the local problems so that the giant steel factory sets up smoothly. In fact, even today, the Rs 18,0032-crore investment to set up a 2.5 million tonnes of integrated greenfield steel plant in Burnpur has been the highest ever single investment in the state still today. I worked under his cabinet for several years and his demise has brought tears in my eyes. Buddha babu has played a key role in changing the socio-economic scenario of Asansol and Burnpur and even hold the first meeting of Raniganj Subsidence Rehabilitation and Resettlement meeting after the Supreme Court order in his house, in which I was also present,” added Bansa Gopal Choudhury.

On 24 December 2006, Dr Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone of the ISP modernization project in Burnpur, in presence of CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.