West Bengal's long-awaited new industrial policy is unlikely to be announced before October 2026, after the close of Durga Puja, following two successive missed deadlines, sources at the state Secretariat Nabanna have indicated. The delay marks a significant setback for the state's efforts to signal a pro-investment climate.

A Timeline of Missed Deadlines

The initial target for releasing the new industrial policy was 15 August 2026 — Independence Day — a symbolically significant date for such announcements. When that window closed without a declaration, the government reset the target to mid-September. That deadline too has now passed without an announcement, pushing the likely rollout to late October at the earliest.

Why the Policy Is Stuck: The Land Question

According to a Nabanna source involved in drafting the policy, most sections are in final form. The key sticking point is the land procurement framework for industries — specifically, how to balance the interests of the state government, landowners, sharecroppers, and agricultural workers simultaneously.

'In case of procurement of agricultural land for industries, besides the landowners, the interests of the sharecroppers and agricultural workers will also have to be protected. So, a combination of all these factors has made the process of finalising the policy for land procurement for industries a bit complicated,' the source said. 'After all, past experiences show that land is a very sensitive issue in West Bengal considering the highly fragmented nature of landholding in the state, which often makes it quite difficult to get huge plots of land at one go for big industries in the manufacturing sector.'

The State's Approach to Land Acquisition

The government has reportedly ruled out two extreme approaches. It will neither apply what the source described as 'archaic acquisition rules' to compulsorily take land, nor leave the entire burden of land assembly on investors. Instead, the emerging model would have the state government directly negotiate with and purchase land from individual owners, before handing it over to investors.

'Considering the extremely fragmented land-holding nature in West Bengal, it is impossible for the investors to contact and negotiate with so many land-owners to get the land for the state. So, the policy of the new government is that the state will do the negotiation part, directly purchase from landowners and subsequently hand over that purchased land to the investors,' the source explained.

Making Landowners Stakeholders in Industry

In an attempt to avoid the kind of land-acquisition conflicts that have historically roiled West Bengal — most notably the Singur episode — the government is also reportedly working on a formula to make displaced landowners economic stakeholders in the industrial units that come up on their land.

Two broad options are under consideration: first, guaranteeing employment to at least one member of each land-owning family in the proposed industrial unit; and second, enabling landowners to set up 'indirect support' entrepreneurship — ancillary businesses catering to the main industrial unit — rather than simply receiving a one-time payment for their land.

What Comes Next

With Durga Puja 2026 expected to conclude around the middle of October, an announcement in the second half of October appears the most likely timeline, according to Nabanna sources. The policy, once released, will be closely watched by industry bodies and investors who have flagged land availability as a persistent constraint on large-scale manufacturing in the state. This comes amid broader national attention on state-level investment climates, with several states competing aggressively to attract manufacturing capital.