Calcutta, Jan. 8: The Chatterjee Group (TCG), led by Bengali entrepreneur Purnendu Chatterjee, stole the show on the first day of the Bengal Global Business Summit with its proposal to invest Rs 20,000 crore in a "feedstock refinery" at Haldia, dwarfing the mumbled intentions and fuzzy commitments made by big honchos of India Inc, including Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.

Just days after gaining control of Haldia Petrochemicals, a beaming Chatterjee said the refinery would cost "no less than Rs 20,000 crore", bringing some cheer to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and industry minister Amit Mitra who were on the dais with several industrialists.

"Going forward, HPL needs expansion and scale to gain competitiveness in a highly volatile world. We are planning to have a refinery to ensure feedstock for our plant," the TCG chairman said.

He added that the petrochemicals company had performed extremely well in the past nine months and clocked Rs 2,000 crore in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA).

He promised to come back with details about the project by the next edition of the summit. Sources said the feedstock refinery would have a capacity of 15 million tonnes.

Chatterjee charmed the CM with numbers but Ambani did it with words. The promoter of India's largest private sector firm did not commit any fresh investment in Bengal in stark contrast with the promise of a Rs 1 lakh crore investment he had made exactly a year ago at Vibrant Gujarat, the annual investment jamboree in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state. Ambani said Bengal ranked among the top states in terms of ease of doing business in the country and exhorted investors to flock to Bengal.

"Not many realise but Reliance has invested Rs 5,000 crore in the past three years. I have no doubt to say that Bengal is on the top of my list in terms of ease of doing business. Based on my own experience, I have no hesitation in recommending Bengal as an ideal destination to all my fellow investors and businessman from India and all over the world, " Ambani said.

Ambani said Reliance Jio had established a digital network encompassing more than 1,000 towns and over 23,000 villages in the state. 'Our aim is to connect all the 40,000 villages by 2017. In the next phase, we will partner small entrepreneurs of the state by providing them with connectivity," Ambani said at the opening of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit here.

Ambani signed off with pledge to work closely with Banerjee. "Reliance Industries will work closely with your government and with the people of Bengal in building and sustaining your leadership status in India. I assure you honourable chief minister Mamata Didi that Reliance will be a reliable partner in the realisation of your vision for a glorious and digital Bengal you can always count on us."

The summit was meant to drum up private investment and so it was a little ironic that the biggest investment promise came from Union shipping and roadways minister Nitin Gadkari.

The central minister spoke about making an investment of Rs 52,982 crore in ports and roads but it was evident that a part of that encapsulated projects that were announced at last year's event. Several industry captains trotted out figures that either included ongoing projects or announcements made last year (See chart).

On whether he was happy with the outcome today, Mitra, the man behind the show, was non-committal. "On the whole, today was a historic day for Bengal. We should not look at numbers only. The message is that Bengal has taken off. You better ride the growth; otherwise it will be too late. You have heard the top industrialists speak in such an emotional manner on how they feel about the state," Mitra said.

A corporate insider said the state would have been better served if top industrialists had made greater investment commitments "Nothing talks more than numbers in the corporate world. On that score, the Bengal Global Business Summit is on shaky ground on the first day. Let us see what happens tomorrow," he added.

Retail baron Kishore Biyani - who claims to earn 18 per cent of his Future Retail's revenues from Bengal - was surprisingly missing from the dais in what appeared to be an avoidable oversight.