Asian Development Bank to study, support Bengal’s economic corridors projects

Kolkata: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will undertake study and development of West Bengal Economic Corridors, the state government has stated. “Asian Development Bank (ADB) has joined hands with Govt. of West Bengal to undertake study and development of the West Bengal Economic Corridors,” an official note, shared by the state government, said.

The study is with an intent to strategise development, economically, across the nodes, namely Andal-Panagarh, Kharagpur-Goaltore-Salboni, Haldi Tajpur, and growth centres – like Siliguri, Dankuni, and Kalyani, with convergence of urban, industrial, logistics, skills, energy, and social sector.

“ADB is keen to support the projects with technical expertise and funding. ADB has worked on a number of landmark corridor projects including the East Coast Economic corridor and the Bangladesh Corridor Study,” the state government has said.

A stakeholder-consultation meeting, directed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, took place on Friday. It was held by Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi, and had representation of key industries on the Industrial and Economic Corridor Project. 

Senior representatives of ADB, Deloitte, FICCI, senior officers of key industries, and representatives of industrial parks along the identified corridors, attended the meeting. The state government departments, concerned, were also represented.

Banerjee has already announced Bengal’s Industrial and Economic Corridor Policy. The state government has planned to develop and upgrade three new corridors in southern West Bengal. These corridors are Dankuni-Kalyani, Tajpur- Raghunathpur, and Dankuni-Jhargram corridors.

There is one more corridor that covers northern districts of the state – from Panagarh to Cooch Behar. These corridors aim at planned development through land-availability portal, and developed infrastructure, and are expected to provide employment opportunities in the state in future.