Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Durgapur tomorrow after a hiatus of almost six years and will inaugurate and lay foundation stones of several projects of oil, gas, power, rail and roads etc worth Rs 5,000 crore, but the residents of this industrial city are keen to know about his plan for revival of the host of closed central public sector units lying idle in West Burdwan district for decades.
The PM’s visit to Durgapur is very significant as the TMC mega show will be held only three days later in Kolkata, with barely less than a year to go for the next year’s Assembly polls in the state.
On 18 July road show and rally, the supporters of Bankura, East and West Burdwan along with Purulia are expected to be present in large numbers.
Talking to The Statesman today, Ashim Chatterjee, INTUC president of MAMC Workers Union said that the central government has so far remained mum on the issue of reopening of MAMC in Durgapur.
The MAMC, which was closed in January 2002, was handed over to a consortium of three CPSUs- CIL, DVC and BEML in July 2010 after liquidation. Since then its reopening has been delayed, though fifteen years have passed since the consortium takeover.
“I have written several letters to PM Narendra Modi and urged him to revive and reopen MAMC,” he added.
There are other central PSUs in Durgapur, which are also closed, including the Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Limited (HFCL), Bharat Opthalmic Glass Limited (BOGL) etc.
The BJP, which won three seats in West Burdwan district in 2021 – Durgapur West, Kulti and Asansol South, all industrial constituencies, once again plans to win the election with its star campaigner PM Narendra Modi by announcing some new projects in this industrial belt.
Already, as a counter attack strategy, the TMC has prepared a land bank in Asansol – Durgapur industrial belt of West Burdwan district, comprising the unused land of these central public sector units and have urged the Centre to hand it over to the state for setting up industrial parks.
Last year, the DM of West Burdwan, S Ponnambalam submitted a status report of about 2,100 acres of lands belonging to the seven closed central public sector units in Asansol and Durgapur to the state commerce and industry department after physical verification.
The status report of seven closed factories, a total of 2095.42 acres, is being prepared.