Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal has discussed a proposed investment of Rs 70,000-80,000 crore in West Bengal’s power and aluminium sectors, with the project potentially located at Bidhanbag near Asansol. The proposal, reported by Times of India, remains at the feasibility-study stage and is not yet a confirmed investment or approved project.
According to the report, Agarwal met Suvendu Adhikari at Nabanna, where the proposed investment was discussed. The report identifies Adhikari as the chief minister, an office-holder description that requires verification before the meeting and its institutional context can be treated as established. The report also attributes to Agarwal a statement that the state government had assured the group of land, coal and water for the proposed project.
Vedanta’s subsidiary BALCO holds about 270 acres at Bidhanbag, near Asansol. Agarwal said the land could be used for the project, although the group could consider another site if suitable land were made available. He also said Bidhanbag had previously housed what he described as Asia’s oldest aluminium factory before it closed.
The proposed investment would build on an earlier, unrealised plan for the same area. During Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s tenure as chief minister, Vedanta had proposed a Rs 20,000-crore industrial project at Bidhanbag involving an aluminium smelter and captive power plant. That project did not proceed, according to the report.
Agarwal said the group would begin with a feasibility study. He described the project as having employment potential and said downstream aluminium industries could develop around a smelter. The report cites experts estimating that aluminium downstream projects could generate about 30,000-40,000 jobs, while Adhikari said the proposed plant in Asansol could create 10,000 employment opportunities. These figures are projections or estimates, not confirmed employment commitments.
The investment proposal places land, electricity, coal, water and industrial linkages at the centre of the project’s next stage. Agarwal said Vedanta could bring aluminium from Odisha, where the group has an existing plant, for downstream activity in Bengal. The report does not establish the proposed plant’s technology, capacity, environmental approvals, financing structure, construction schedule or land-allocation process.
For Asansol and the wider industrial belt, the immediate significance is that a large industrial proposal has returned to a site associated with an earlier stalled aluminium project. Its progress will depend first on the feasibility study and then on formal decisions concerning land, utilities, environmental clearance, project design and implementation. Independent confirmation of the meeting, the office-holder identification and the state’s commitments is required before those next steps can be reported as official.
