Bengal industry minister Nirupam Sen (second from left) with Jai Balaji CMD Aditya Jajodia (extreme left),CPM member of Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia and WBIDC managing director Subrata Gupta (extreme right) in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Dec. 29: The Bengal government today handed over around 750 acres to Jai Balaji Group for its proposed steel plant at Raghunathpur in Purulia.

Jai Balaji is the third company that has promised to start work on its proposed project in the state despite problems over land acquisition and meltdown in the steel sector. Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Bengal and home-grown Shyam Sel are the other two companies that have begun groundwork for their projects.

The company will invest Rs 4,000 crore in the next three years in the first phase, comprising a 2-million-tonne (mt) steel plant, 400MW power unit and 1mt cement facility.

Bengal industry minister Nirupam Sen praised Jai Balaji’s move in the current economic environment. “I am happy that all our investors are still committed to their respective projects,” Sen said. He warned that the spate of investment proposals would come down in 2009. “It will be wrong to say we will remain insulated from the global meltdown. Bengal may not see the upswing witnessed in the last three years,” he said.

Aditya Jajodia, chairman and managing director of Jai Balaji, said 5,000 people would get jobs in the first phase. “We are expecting clearance from the environment ministry soon. Once it is in place, we will start work on the ground,” Jajodia said.

The company hopes to get another 250 acres from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for the first phase. It has also promised one job in every family that has given up land for the plant. CPM member of Parliament Basudeb Acharia said all parties had welcomed the project. “I had taken the task to meet the people and explain the benefit of the project. The price of the land has been fixed after talking to all,” he said.

Airport city

The Bengal government has appointed TCE Consulting Engineers Limited to carry out a study on the proposed airport city project at Andal. State industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen said the study would help the state explore if there were coal deposits in the proposed area and if those could be mined.

Sen said the area earmarked for the airport was non-negotiable since it had been cleared by the civil aviation ministry. However, some components of the project could be shifted if coal was found. “We do not want to waste coal reserves,” Sen said.