West Bengal Chief Minister welcomes Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran at the State Secretariat

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran at the State Secretariat, ‘Nabanna’. This meeting assumed significance as Banerjee met Chandrasekaran for the first time since she became the Chief Minister in 2011.

The meeting lasted for more than an hour. The Tata Sons Chairman was accompanied by CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee. State Chief Secretary Manoj Pant was also present during the meeting.

It was learnt that contents of the meeting included discussions about the land bank in West Bengal, and setting up a direct flight to Europe from Kolkata by Air India.

Chandrasekaran has been in touch with the Chief Minister for the last few months. Both had spoken over the phone during the Bengal Global Business Summit earlier this year.

“I had a detailed discussion with Tata Sons Chairperson Chandrasekaran yesterday evening. He was very keen to come. But he has some pre-occupation. That is why he couldn’t come, but has sent a big delegation including the CEO. He has assured me that they want to invest more in Bengal and said that he will also come to Bengal soon,” Banerjee said while inaugurating the 8th edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit in February this year.

Sour past

Notably, Tata Motors had to relocate its plant to produce Nano from West Bengal’s Singur to Gujarat’s Sanand in 2008, following a strong anti-land acquisition protest led by Banerjee – the then Opposition leader in the State.

The erstwhile Left Front government had acquired nearly 1,000 acres of land in Singur in 2006 and handed it over to Tata Motors to build a manufacturing facility. But the land acquisition was opposed by the Trinamool Congress chief. Eventually, the automaker had to shelve the Singur project.

Banerjee, last year, claimed that it was not her who drove Tata Motors out of the State, but the CPI(M). Her remarks relating to the movement against alleged forcible land acquisition for Tata Motors small car project at Singur evoked strong reaction from the opposition, particularly the CPI(M) leadership, which called Banerjee’s remarks “lies”.

Published on July 9, 2025