There appears a certain plan that goes in West Bengal government’s efforts in making Singur THE destination as an auto-hub. It’s like a thriller, unfolding as it does with the trail getting hotter and hotter until it reaches the climax. It’s difficult not to praise the way the government is handling it, what with opposition’s motivated campaign to derail it.
There is no doubt that industry is necessary, and to recall Late Anil Biswas’ saying that industry cannot happen in air, there is also no doubt that industry has to happen on farmlands at places where the industrialists wish to sink their money in. Despite what the opposition wants us to believe, isn’t it a fact that at individual levels we all build our sweet homes where we want to live?
The latest on Singur is exciting. Tata Motors proposes to roll out its 5-seater, rear-engine, ‘low-on-purse’ passenger cars from would-be Singur plant in about a year’s time. Initially, 100,000 cars will be built per year, which will be scaled to 500,000 in stages.
If that looks promising, there is more. Pune’s famous Kalyani group’s flagship company, Bharat Forge will have its own manufacturing unit in Singur, presumably within Tata’s premises. Now, Bharat Forge is a giant auto-parts maker, and a large amount of its produce is exported through the western ports. It now wants to spread wings in eastern India by starting manufacturing units in different parts of West Bengal.
Tata Motors’ Pune plant – and now in WB [Picture source]
What is industry without commensurate infrastructure? To conclusively address this issue, the government is pursuing plans to make a deep-sea port near Sagar Islands at the confluence of river Hooghly where it meets the Bay of Bengal. Notably, the all-weather port will have the deepest draft (double that of Haldia port) of all major ports in India.
Since the port will be connected with dedicated rail-corridor for freight movement, and also top-class roads, there’s little doubt that it has the potential to evolve as one of the busiest ports in the entire South-East Asia.
With all these taking place, is it any wonder that captains of industries from India and abroad are making beelines to invest in West Bengal? Coming back to Singur, there is no hesitation to believe that Tata’s car plant is a curtain-raiser of industrial rejuvenation that will thereafter follow.
Let’s welcome Tata Motors with open arms.
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Actually there is no other land left in the state where industrialisation is possible at all. The state is too crowded with industries. Only this piece of land was left for development. Let’s thank & congratulate Comrade Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Comrade Ratan Tata for the land reforms in Singur.