When Mamata wooed 5 Tata group MDs

Five Tata group managing directors on Monday called on West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, to discuss about their respective companies.

The managing directors -- Rana Sinha of Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company, Dibyendu Bose of TM International Logistics Limited, Sandipan Chakravortty of Tata Steel Processing and Distribution Limited, Viresh Oberoi of mjunction, and Sanjiv Paul of Tata Metaliks -- met at Nabanna, the makeshift state secretariat. Finance and industry minister, Amit Mitra, was also present.

“This was just a follow-up meet after Chief Minister’s Bijoya Sammilani.

"She had asked us whether there were any issues. So this meeting was organised to discuss the future of manufacturing," Tata Hitachi managing director, Rana Sinha said.

“The Chief Minister was interested in our e-auction of natural resources and asked us whether we could auction five tea gardens owned by the state government in Dooars.

"We have sought details," mjunction managing director, Viresh Oberoi said.

The state government too appeared to be enthusiastic about the meeting.

Mitra said, the meeting with the Tata group representatives was very fruitful.

"They are planning to expand investments," he said.

The Trinamool Congress also tweeted that TCS would create a second campus in Bengal which would create employment for 20,000 people.

However, there was no official from TCS at the meeting.

It was understood that Tata Metaliks discussed an expansion project in Bengal.

Tata Metaliks has a pig iron manufacturing facility at Kharagpur.

The company had earlier put a steelmaking project in Bengal on the backburner due to land issues.

Tata Metaliks' managing director could not be reached for comments.

Though today's meeting was just weeks before the final Singur hearing in Supreme Court, Tata group officials said, it had nothing to do with the case.

It, however, seemed that both the parties had decided to put Singur fiasco that led to Tata Motors' pullout, behind.

Image: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; Photograph: Reuters