Shyam Metalics, one of the country’s leading metal conglomerates, on Tuesday (May 19) announced Rs 20,000 crore investment in West Bengal in the coming years. The company’s Chairman and Managing Director said they are hoping for an easier path ahead for industrial growth after the change in government. 

“We employ over 25,000 people in Bengal and we plan to increase it to at least 45,000 in the next few years. With the new era in the State, we think a lot of central funds will come for better development,” CMD, Brij Bhushan Agarwal said on Tuesday. 

They are also set to launch a railway manufacturing unit in Kharagpur and will invest at least ₹4,000 crores in this project in the coming years. They recently acquired a factory plant that has been closed for almost 15 years, and are set to commission work in that factory by this year’s end. 

Mr Brij Bhushan also said that almost 90% of their workers are from Bengal and they are inclined to continue recruiting from here to ensure better employment of the youth of the State. 

Calling it a proud moment for Bengal, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Joint Managing Director, said that they are hoping for a better land policy from the new government to help them acquire land and start work faster than before.  

“We will see that we get a chance to give work to people from this State, so the out-migration stops. We value the work ethic we have in Bengal,” Mr Sanjay said. 

He also added that they are one of the first to announce such a huge investment in Bengal after the regime change and asked other industrialists to follow suit. 

According to the top officials of the company, they stated that Bengal consumes only 15,000 metric tonnes of coated steel, similar to Kerala, even though the population in Bengal is almost triple that of Kerala. An official added that this was mostly due to a lack of growth and said that there is massive potential in the State to increase consumption through better industrialisation. 

Photo attached on email 

EOM