The significant East in India The Eastern States, due to its immense and relatively untapped economic potential, can play a major role in taking the Indian economy to a higher growth trajectory. With its rich natural resource base, Eastern India can truly be the flag-bearer of the country's growth in the next decade.

Sustainable utilisation of the Eastern region's rich natural and mineral resources can propel the region as a chemical manufacturing hub. Manufacturing, through its various backward and forward linkages, can lead to significant employment generation and can contribute to the East's rising as well. West Bengal specifically has tremendous growth potential in chemical industry.

Indian Chemical Industry

• The Indian Chemical Industry is a significant component of the Indian Economy with a revenue approximately USD 80Billion and is ranked 6th largest in the world and third largest in Asia.
• The sector contributes about 3% in the GDP of the country. Eastern India is a consuming hub with major consuming industries like leather, mini steel plants, minerals and metals, jute, textiles, paints, pigments, chemicals and solvents, food & beverages, confectionery, beer, country liquor, hydroelectric & thermal power plants, tea plantation, edible oil units, petroleum refineries etc.
• Downstream plastic units consume large quantities of PVC Resin, LLDP, HOPE, PET Resin etc. This huge consuming base provides ample opportunities for setting up units for manufacturing inorganic, organic, speciality water treatment chemicals, dyes & pigments as because most of the raw materials are either imported from other states or foreign countries.

Opportunities in West Bengal
There are few basic chemical manufacturing units like soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, caustic soda, chlorine, PVC resin, sulphuric acid, sodium metabisulphite, sodium sulphide in this region but has a large consumption appetite. Large quantities of raw materials like sulphur, rock phosphate, and coal are easily available to name some.

Close proximity to overseas large markets like Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and SE Asia, gateway to seven north-eastern states apart from neighbouring states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and UP, presence of two large container and bulk handling ports like Kolkata and Haldia, well developed road connectivity, abundance water, cheap labour, unlimited quality power and low cost of doing business provide ample opportunities for setting up chemical units in West Bengal.

Mitsubishi PTA, Haldia Petrochemicals, Dhunseri Petrochemical, BASF, Sika Ag, Nalco Water India Ltd, PMC Rubber Chemicals, DIC India are some of the extremely successful, either wholly owned or joint venture units, are running in West Bengal.

Proposed Integrated Chemical Park
The time is also right for exploring mechanisms of how Indian SMEs could tie up with SMEs in developed and developing countries for technology as well as trade. Keeping this in mind Indian Chemical Merchants & Manufacturers Association (ICMMA), an industry association based in Kolkatais developing a cluster for small & medium scale chemical and allied units with facilities like common effluent treatment plant, international standard testing laboratory, warehousing zone etc. with active support from the Government of West Bengal. The proposed 400 acre (162 ha) Integrated Chemical Park being set up by ICMMA in association with MSME & Textile Department of Government of West Bengal will provide the right infrastructure and eco-system to the future chemical industries in the State. This Park, located in Howrah, just 35 Km from Kolkata will be ready in the next two years. Being developed with an investment of 75 million USD, it has an investment potential of 300 million USD.

This Park can accommodate 400 to 500 small and mediumindustries. 200 chemical industries from West Bengal have already booked space in this Park.

Kalyani, 50 km north of Kolkata and Kharagpur - Haldia belt, 100 kmsouth of Kolkata are another two chemical industry hubs of West Bengal having great potential for expansion and growth.