Nirupam Sen

Calcutta, April 17: Industries minister Nirupam Sen today visited the DaimlerAG factory outside Stuttgart in Germany and held talks with company officials.

The minister, who was accompanied by commerce secretary Sabyasachi Sen and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation managing director M.V. Rao, explored if Daimler, the maker of Mercedes Benz, could invest in Bengal.

Sources said the government would hold talks with the company again in future.

Today’s meeting, however, was shorter than the one held with BMW on Monday.

The Bengal team, which had met BMW officials in Munich and made a presentation on the upcoming auto hub in Kharagpur, said it was encouraged by “the positive vibes”.

Daimler, like BMW, is already on the Indian manufacturing map. It is setting up a plant at Chakan in Maharashtra, which will make Mercedes S-Class, E-Class and C-Class for the Indian market. Production is expected to start in early 2009.

Sen also held talks with the chambers of commerce in Baden-Wurttemberg in southern Germany.