Bengal woos more investors

Armed with calm at Singur and Nandigram, the West Bengal government has set out to woo investors from the western part of the country.

State commerce and industry minister, Nirupam Sen, and secretary, Sabysachi Sen are in Mumbai and have held a series of meetings with industrialists in Mumbai including Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance and Ashok Hinduja of the Hinduja group.

Sources close to the development said, the meeting with Ratan Tata was largely focused on the progress of the "Nano" factory at Singur in West Bengal.

Meetings were held today with Mukesh Ambani and Ashok Hinduja and the focus was investment opportunities in the petrochemical sector.

Sources said, progress of the gas pipeline project from the Krishna Godavari Basin for bringing in natural gas was discussed with Ambani. The minister also visited Reliance's Jamnagar facility on the trip. Possibility of Ashok Leyland's investment in the emerging auto sector was explored.

Apart from the one-on-one meetings, both the minister and the principal secretary attended a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) industrialists' interaction in Mumbai.