TCG set to invest Rs 5000cr in state

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has bagged a Rs 5,000-crore investment proposal during her UK trip, which could be scaled up to Rs 10,000 crore in the next few years.
State finance and commerce and industries minister Amit Mitra, who is accompanying the CM on the trip, told TOI that TCG chairman Purnendu Chatterjee has promised to pump in close to Rs 5,000 crore in the group’s MCC PTA unit.TCG acquired a majority stake in MCC PTA India in Juy 2016 from Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation. Chatterjee was in London to attend the joint meeting of UKIBC and Ficci with the chief minister.
Mitra said Chatterjee held a separate meeting with Ban-erjee, where she requested him to invest further in the MCC PTA Haldia unit, and he agreed. “MCC PTA does not have a downstream eco system like Haldia Petrochemicals,” Mitra said. “We need a continuous polymerisation unit at MCC PTA. This will have a huge multiplier effect. Now, the entire production of MCC PTA went to Surat in Gujarat, as there is no buyer here,” he added. Japanese giant Mitsubishi had sold MCC PTA to TCG at a time the company went to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), following a complete erosition of net worth. The firm’s accumulated losses were close to Rs 4,000 crore during that period. However, after the change of hands, the ailing polymer unit — with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes — is on the way to recovery.
Mitra said TCG will set up a CP (continious poymerisation) unit and a spinning unit. as a forward integration of MCC PTA. “From spinning, we shall get fabrics which can be used in small textile units here,” he elaborated. According to him, this investment has the potential to create five lakh jobs. “HPL has created over five lakh employment in a few thousand downstream units. MCC PTA can repeat this. Besides, if the downstream unit comes, there will be fresh investment as well, to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore. This could be a major game-changer for Haldia and Bengal as a whole,” he added.
It may be noted that last month, top officials of Saudi oil giant Aramco had met Banerjee and it was learnt that the energy giant was exploring the possibility of investing in a refinery in Bengal. Incidentally, TCG, the owner of HPL, had also expressed interest for backward-integration for HPL through a refinery.
On Wednesday evening, Banerjee met members of Scottish Development International, the international trade and investment arm of the Scottish government.