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Buddha calls all party meeting on chemical hub issue

By IANS

Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has called an all-party meeting on Sep 3 to evolve a consensus over alternative location for a proposed chemical hub which was to be set up in Nandigram.

“We have called an all-party meeting on Sep 3 at the state secretariat to finalise the proposed chemical hub project. We have already sent letters to all political parties in West Bengal and they have responded to our call except the Trinamool Congress,” Bhattacharya told reporters here Wednesday.

“We have seen a few locations for the proposed hub. Considering the issue of environmental threat, a committee has already been constituted in Delhi and thankfully for us, they would give the final go ahead,” Bhattacharya said.

He said the Haldia petrochemical plant has been developed over 6,000 acres of land in East Midnapore district, about 125 km from the state capital, and it will be further expanded using another 3,500-4,000 acres of land which has already been acquired by the state government.

Bhattacharya said that another oil refinery and two ancillary units, including a polymer factory, will also come up at Haldia.

The state government has already seen a few locations, especially in the Haldia area, for the chemical hub project but nothing has been decided yet.

Issues such as the location of the chemical hub and the total land required for it will be discussed in the all-party meeting.

The proposed chemical hub as part of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Nandigram, about 150 km from here, had triggered large-scale projects. Since January, at least 24 people have died in violence there, including 14 deaths in police firing on March 14.

Meanwhile, state chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb Wednesday said several steel plants, captive power plants and cement plants would be set up in Purulia, Burdwan and North 24 Parganas districts by private groups.