West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said her government has brought down man-days lost in the state due to strikes and disruptions to zero from 75 lakh per year during the erstwhile Left regime, as she wooed investors from across the globe at a big-ticket business summit here.??

Banerjee, addressing a large gathering of industry tycoons at the Bengal Global Business Summit, said the state will work on eight pillars of development going ahead, including infrastructure, education, social security, skill development and ease-of-doing-business.

“Bengal is the first state to organise a physical business summit since the Covid pandemic struck. It is the gateway to eastern and northeastern India, neighbouring Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal as well as South East Asia,” she said.?

“We lost 75 lakh man-days every year during the Left Front rule, but now no man-days are lost,” Banerjee added.

The chief minister also said the state government will set up Rs 72,000-crore industrial zone in ‘Junglemahal’ (forested areas of four south Bengal districts) along the eastern freight corridor, and has readied a policy on grant of shale-gas exploration licences.? ?

“We have allocated 2,483 acre of industrial land at Purulia for the ‘Junglemahal Shundori Kormonagari’ project along the eastern freight corridor from Amritsar to Dankuni,” she said.

Banerjee added that by 2023, the state will join the national gas grid.?