#Kolkata: Cigarettes to FMCG major ITC Ltd on Wednesday unveiled three major projects in West Bengal, which will attract an investment of nearly Rs 3,000 crore where it is headquartered.
These projects involve two integrated consumer goods manufacturing facilities in Uluberia (400,000 square feet) and Panchla (800,000 square feet) and an IT facility (27 lakh square feet) in Rajarhat near the state’s capital.
Previously, while appreciating the state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee ‘s endeavour to attract investment, ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar had planned a total investment of nearly Rs 4,500 crore which also included developing a 500 room hotel here.
Production of agro commodities from its plant in Uluberia is poised to start from May this year while the other agro processing unit in Panchla will commenced operations latest by March 2017. The IT park, which includes a 140-key hotel as well besides residentail accomodation will be completed in phases begining 2018.
The company’s decision to invest in the food processing sector follows the state government’s claim of the per capita income in West Bengal featuring as double to the national one.
“One specific factor holding back economic development in the state is consumption sentiment”, Deveshwar said.
According to him, the development of food processing sector will not only help consumers to avail better quality food, it will also create more employment in the state besides cutting down on wastage of foodstuff and grains.
In countries in far east Asia, Brazil and others, food wastage has been controlled owing to the strong presence of the food processing sector which is able to process 75-85 per cent of the produce. However, in India, only four per cent of the agro produce is covered by the food processing industry.
The company, which had only three units in the state has added nine more projects in the last five years – the time when Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress came to power.
Deveshwar however, is seeking more land adjacent to its Uluberia plant to add more product lines.
“We could scale up tomorrow. Instead of building factories scattered, if a plant can be scaled up, more product lines can be added,” he said.
As per Deveshwar, in case the land adjacent to its Uluberia factory is either lying vacant or no industrial use is being made of it, ITC can integrate that land with the factory to add further product lines.
He confirmed the Kolkata based company will be adding more product lines in future to attain it’s targeted growth. By Agencies.
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