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: and move elsewhere.” Harsh Neotia, CMD, Ambuja Realty, disagrees “The fence-sitters may rethink but those who have already committed huge investments in the state will stay. Symbolically, if the Tatas leave, it will definitely send the wrong signal but I hope and I suppose that other investments will happen.”

The booming real estate sector also saw investment announcements, with DLF Group alone proposing Rs 33,000-crore (Rs 45,000-crore at current prices) in a total of Rs 52,929 crore. Now, the DLF township project at Dankuni has caught the Singur flu and the government has gone into ‘consultation’ mode. Besides, the

Delhi-based DLF Group, Bengal-based Merlin Group and Ambuja Realty have announced projects worth Rs 12,900 crore. The oil sector too has announced investments worth Rs 29,750 crore with oil major IOC planning to set up a world class petrochemical production centre at Haldia. Other projects include three more from the Tata group — a metallurgical coke and power project at Haldia and a Tata Metaliks plant in Durgapur. Samir Modi, MD of ColorBar Cosmetics and President of TwentyFourSeven Retail Stores, says that if the Tatas go, industry will be wary of West Bengal.

As Assocham’s Rawat puts it: “The chamber will continue to play a proactive role and back the Tatas as they deserve to be supported. After all, they also want that West Bengal does not recede to the 70s era when there was an exodus in industry from the state due to Naxalism.”