Kolkata, Sep 24 (PTI) Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Thursday said West Bengal must emerge as a key engine for the country’s next growth phase, asserting that the state’s strategic location made it essential to fulfil the vision of Viksit Bharat.
He said much of India’s economic growth momentum over the past several decades had come from the western and southern parts of the country, but the next phase of growth must create new centres of gravity.
“For India’s next trillion dollars of growth, the East must rise. This is where Bengal becomes essential to fulfil the vision of Viksit Bharat,” Adani said at a programme organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here.
Flanked by the mineral and industrial belts of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to its west and access to fast-growing Southeast Asian and Indo-Pacific markets through the Bay of Bengal, no other location in the country matches the state’s combination of advantages, he said.
Adani said the group’s commitment to West Bengal would span ports, logistics, power generation, transmission and distribution, roads, bridges, ropeways, green cement and hyperscale data centres, with plans to invest over Rs one lakh crore in Bengal over the next decade.
He said development could not be measured only in cargo volumes, megawatts or terabytes, and its “true measure must remain deeply human”.
Referring to the Adani Arogya Mandir, a 2,000-bed hospital for which foundation stone was laid earlier in the day in New Town near here, he said half the beds would be reserved for those who cannot afford quality healthcare.
The Adani Group chairman also announced support for revitalisation of Kumartuli Ghat along the Hooghly river, a curated Durga Puja programme to promote Bengal’s artists globally, and the conservation of the historic Writers’ Building.
Recalling his three-decade-old association with Mundra port in Gujarat, Adani said, “Mundra in the West was my first karmabhoomi. Today, with the same humility and sense of responsibility, it is my prayer that Bengal in the East becomes my second karmabhoomi.”
He emphasised that Bengal must capitalise on its geographical advantage, intellect and industrial legacy. PTI BSM BDC
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