Calcutta, July 6: Close on the heels of Mukesh Ambani promising to invest in agro-retail in Bengal, younger sibling Anil is looking eastward again.

Anil’s Reliance Energy has evinced interest in participating in the Rs 2,500-crore Light Rail Transit (LRT) project in Calcutta.

Anil has sent feelers to the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government and offered to come to the city to discuss the project with the chief minister.

The transport department had last month shortlisted four companies that responded to an invitation to execute the project on a build-operate-transfer basis. The four are Siemens, Amex Corp of the Czech Republic, Bhel-Itochu and Srei-Metrail.

“We’ve narrowed down to two players now, Siemens and the Czech company. We will have to see how the Reliance investment can fit into the scheme of things. We are awaiting a detailed proposal,” commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen said.

According to officials, Reliance Energy is expected to execute the project with a foreign collaborator. The company is now working on a Rs 2,000-crore metro rail project in Mumbai along with a French company.

For executing the Rs 4,000-crore East-West Metro rail project, the state government has zeroed in on the railway ministry.

“The Railway Board chairman has written to us saying the railways will take up the project as an extension of the existing Metro project and finance it. We have conveyed our willingness to the railway ministry,” an official said. The Centre had footed a part of the Rs 6-crore bill for the detailed project report.

Anil’s group had recently inked a pact with the state government for setting up Bengal’s first infotech deemed university in the private sector.