RIL to invest Rs 5,000 crore in West Bengal: Ambani

Kolkata, January 16

RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani today announced Rs 5,000-crore investment in expanding telecom and petro-retail businesses in West Bengal and said his company is exploring the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility for mobile phones and set-top boxes.

Speaking at the Bengal Global Business Summit, India’s richest man complimented Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying that under her leadership “West Bengal is becoming Best Bengal!”

Ambani said his company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had committed an investment of Rs 4,500 crore in the state but has ended up investing Rs 15,000 crore.

“Didi, we could make this large investment only because you have created a friendly climate and an enabling policy infrastructure,” he said, adding that RIL has emerged as one of the largest investors in Bengal.

Most of the investment has been made in creating fourth-generation high-speed mobile and internet network for Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of RIL.

Also, Reliance will work with “multiple partners to explore setting up next generation state-of-the-art electronics manufacturing facilities and make West Bengal the hub for innovation and hi-tech technologies for consumer devices such as mobile phones, set-top boxes, and other devices,” he said.

Starting in 2015 through a public Wi-Fi Experience Zone in Park Street, Jio has enmassed over 1.2 crore customers in the state, he said.

He said the digital economy will bring prosperity at more than double the speed of the traditional economy. — PTI