A delegation of the company led by group chairman M Zisser met the chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Monday with its investment proposals.
EIG is likely to submit a formal proposal to the state government regarding investment in a week. The investment proposals include a bio-tech park, a state-of-the-art medical equipment plant and a showpiece infrastructure project.
EIG invited the chief minister to Israel to see the production facility of the group.
The promoter of Laxmi Relators Ltd, and the local partner of the group, Indrajit De, said EIG was keen to invest in West Bengal as it was impressed by the quality and availability of human resources.
De, a NRI, was instrumental for bringing EIG to West Bengal. He said in another 2-3 months, the detailed roadmap of the proposed Rs 10,000 crore investment in India would be finalised.
According to De, EIG would take up the medical equipment plant in the first phase. "We shall float a special purpose vehicle for the medical equipment plant. It would be a joint venture between Laxmi group and Europe Israel. There could be a third partner in the venture," he said.
EIG currently had a joint venture outfit with GE called Elbiet Medical Imaging. According to the Laxmi group promoter, the group was likely to invest Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) for the medical equipment project.
EIG has also sought land for a bio-technology park in the state. Commenting on this, De said EIG required around 100 acres for the project.
Earlier, the chairman of EIG, M Zisser, said the group was a large investor in R&D in the bio-tech sector. "We are investing $150 million in R&D in biotech division, a major portion of this being on a cancer drug," he said.
He said besides West Bengal, the group would also look at Bangalore for exploring opportunities in IT and telecom.
According to him, the proposed infrastructure project would not be a typical real estate project. EIG was interested in a signature project like convention centre.
Laxmi group along with EIG, was one of the bidders for the Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) convention centre project at Rajarhat, the new township coming up in eastern Kolkata.
