Air-India will be operating two direct flights from Kolkata to London, early next year, according to an assurance by the civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, to the Rajya Sabha MP, Rama Prasad Goenka.

Goenka said in his opening remarks at the business seminar organised by WBIDC in association with the Consular Corps of Kolkata, that he had held several rounds of discussions with the civil aviation minister.

He had been assured that Air-India would be operating two direct flights from Kolkata to London by early 2005.

The new flights were expected to help West Bengal's efforts to woo foreign investment to the state as lack of international flights has often been cited as one of the reasons why foreign investors avoided eastern India. Goenka said a Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) mining project with an Australian company was also underway.

The project had been delayed but was now under way. Dwelling on the major forthcoming projects in West Bengal, Goenka said discussions with the Jindals about the group's Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) steel plant in the state were progressing.

The project was however dependent on iron ore supply linkage from Orissa. Goenka said he had held a meeting with the mining minister for assistance in obtaining permission for the linkages.

According to the policy adopted by the Orissa government, the iron ore leases would be granted on the condition that steel plant was put up in the state of Orissa.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, commended the West Bengal government's efforts in attracting foreign investment in the state.

To achieve the eight per cent economic growth, the key areas the central government would have to concentrate on were the social sector, agriculture and infrastructure.

He said the agricultural policy should involve diversification in agro processing and West Bengal was well positioned in this regard. However, the most important factor hampering industrial growth was inadequate infrastructure. Ahluwalia said poor infrastructure was a check on the amount of foreign investment that could come in.

He pointed out that while public investment was critical, there were a large number of areas, which could be developed jointly with the private sector, like the modernisation of airports. Funds required were to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion), out of which Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) would be from internal accruals.

Boguslaw Zalesky, deputy foreign minister of Poland, called for Indo-Polish joint participation in sectors like coal mining, food processing and modernisation of ports. K Natwar Singh, Union minister for external affairs, said the Indian foreign policy would contribute to the well being of the citizens.

He mooted the concept of domestication of diplomacy and said the external affairs ministry would open offices in different state capitals to address the issue.