Tuesday, August 1 2006 11:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The West Bengal Government yesterday (July 31,2006) signed an agreement with a consortium led by Indonesia-based Salim Group for setting up mega infrastructure projects that would consume 40,000 acres of land and said interests of poor and marginal farmers would be protected.

The agreement between the state government, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and the New Kolkata International Development Pvt Ltd (NKID) a special purpose company promoted by the Salim Group, the Universal Success group and Unitech was signed at a function in the presence of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Among other things, the agreement envisaged setting up of a chemical industrial estate, a multi-product SEZ and a small and medium enterprises industrial estate, an expressway and a bridge.

While declining to quantify the investment, pending preparation of the detailed project report (DPR), the chief minister said that Rs 4,000 crore would be spent on building the expressway connecting North 24 Parganas district with East Midnapore, including the bridge over the Hooghly between Raichak in South 24 Parganas and Kukrahati in East Midnapore.

"It is not possible to quantify the investments right now because DPRs will have to be made for each component of the project," Industry minister Nirupam Sen told reporters after the signing ceremony.

He said that another Rs 3,430 crore would be pumped in for building social infrastructure and increasing land productivity.