The BJP is emotional about its Bengal victory. In a private conversation, a senior leader recently said the party would love to make the State more developed than Gujarat. This ambition is now the greatest asset of the failed State which is known for giving a long rope to its rulers.
The Suvendu Adhikari government has started working at a breakneck speed. The BJP central leadership has readied a host of plans, ranging from infrastructure activities to a facelift for Kolkata and industrialisation. This piece is an attempt to indicate some of the low-hanging fruits.
First and foremost, the urban land ceiling must go. The total fertility rate of urban West Bengal is equivalent to that of the European Union (1.3 live births per woman). The TFR of Kolkata is way lower and its population is shrinking.
The ageing population is selling landed assets as part of fiscal consolidation, but the urban infrastructure, including the quality of real estate, is significantly inferior when compared to smaller towns in southern and western India.
One of the hurdles is stringent urban land ceiling. Relaxing this ceiling is a solution, subject to zonal restrictions and regulations. Water and sewerage are now in the hands of bankrupt municipal bodies. On top of that, former chief minister Mamata Banerjee didn’t allow imposition of water tax.
Water woes
The pitfalls are evident. Even in Kolkata, which is not large enough for a metropolis, the municipal corporation fails to supply treated water across the city. The sewerage system is either centuries old or has not seen adequate investment.
Over the last three decades, Kolkata grew eastward. Most large housing societies, costly private schools and hospitals are located along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. Most of them source water through deep tubewells. All societies have waste treatment plants but very few are functional.
The solution may lie in forming dedicated State bodies for water and sewerage — on the lines of Hyderabad. This will reduce the headload on municipal bodies, improve their fiscal health and ensure better planning and investments.
Industrial hubs
Better urban infrastructure is a prerequisite for investments. The BJP manifesto promised four industrial hubs, including a defence hub. Three locations are already identified — one each at Haldia, Singur and Durgapur, which have abundant industry-ready land available.
Singur, near Kolkata, will welcome any effort towards industry at the abandoned Tata Nano plant which Mamata returned to “farmers”. It is now unfit for agriculture. Haldia has excess land available with the port authorities. Roughly 700 acres of unused land once belonged to state-owned Bengal Salt, and is available at nearby Tajpur.
Durgapur, now aided by an airport, can open up endless opportunities. The closed facilities of the state-owned Mining and Allied Machineries Corporation (MAMC) and Fertiliser Corporation, including their vast and abandoned townships, can unlock thousands of acres of industrial land.
Durgapur Chemicals is shut, so is Bharat Ophthalmic Glass. Durgapur Projects Limited closed parts of its plants. There are not enough staff members to live in its vast township. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool-backed encroachers occupied a good part of the staff quarters.
The 60-km Durgapur-Asansol corridor is the State’s oldest industrial zone. Also, Asansol and Darjeeling-Siliguri (North Bengal) are education hubs. Students from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and lower Assam come to Darjeeling for school education.
Quality healthcare
That said, neither area has quality private healthcare. Patients in North Bengal travel to Bihar and Nepal for speciality healthcare. There is no private university comparable to the standards and repute of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Odisha.
Acquired and unused land, well connected by highways and rail, is available in large quantities in North Purulia (very close to Asansol) and Kharagpur (where the Tata Nano plant was originally planned), midway between Kolkata and Jamshedpur (Jharkhand). The entire area is accessible from Kolkata, which is barely three hours by road.
The closed industries in Kolkata and Howrah have huge parcels of unused land. Privately owned Jessop & Co and National Instruments Limited are cases in point. A bare relocation of the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute in Jadavpur can unclog a major artery.
Land acquisition is an over-hyped issue in Bengal. The problem is not as big as it seems. However, due to political sensitivity, the BJP government must avoid it for now. It can instead pay attention to making use of unused land, which will improve both the optics and the growth momentum in the short term.
Bengal is crying for private investment of scale. The tax revenues from the city are far lower than those of any other metro. In terms of the erstwhile central excise collections, Kolkata (including the two riverine ports in Kolkata and Haldia) was comparable to Visakhapatnam and Vadodara.
We need a dramatic transition.
The writer is an independent journalist
Published on May 12, 2026