Investors need to submit an array of application forms to different government departments to get relevant licenses and registrations according to existing procedures. It often resulted in un-necessary delays due to lack of inter-departmental co-ordination.

With a view to assist the investors in setting up industries in West Bengal, the Government of West Bengal has launched Shilpa Sathi where an investor can submit a Common Application Form in the Single Window Cell at WBIDC.

Initially, in Phase-I, the facility of Shilpa Sathi is available to investors, who want to set up medium and large industries in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, South24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas districts. ShilpaSathi will assist investors to apply in the Common Application Form (CAF), to obtain licenses and registration from relevant important State Government departments from a single place, which are listed below. For the above purpose, a Single Window Cell (SWC) has started functioning at the Ground Floor, "Protiti", West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (WBIDC), 23. Abanindranath Thakur Sarani (Camac Street), Kolkata -700017.

Officers of the above departments will sit in the Single Window Cell at designated days of the week. They will receive the Common Application Form and related documents and will issue relevant Licenses / Registration after observing necessary legal and procedural formalities according to relevant Acts and Rules.

In Phase-II. the investor will be able to submit the Common Application Form on-line in the Shilpa Sathi and get all licenses and registrations on- line. An online tracking system of status of the online application will also be available in the G2B portal developed for the purpose with IT infrastructure in the State Data Centre.

In Phase-III, the State Shilpa Sathi will migrate to the eBiz, the Single Window Facility being developed by Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, which aims to cover all Central and State government departments which issue licenses and registrations required for setting up an industry in India.