Inaugurating the Rs 800 crore cement plant of JSW Group in West Bengal's West Midnapore district, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday appealed to people to "extend cooperation" to industries and treat businessmen as their "family members" so that industrialists do not face any problem in expanding their businesses.

Ahead of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit starting from Tuesday, she also said perception about Bengal has been changing.

"There was a perception that the Bengal was not doing well, but now people think the state is really doing well," Banerjee said.

Thanking local villagers and people at Salboni for cooperating with the group to set up its 2.4 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) cement manufacturing unit, Banerjee said: "Please maintain it for future also and extend your full cooperation so that they should not face any acute crisis or any problem.

"They (referring to JSW Group's top leadership including Chairman Sajjan Jindal) are just like our family members. We have to care for our family members. If we don't care for them, how will the business grow?"

Applauding the $12 billion JSW Group's expansion plan in the state, she said: "Their intention is very good and we are excited for that."

"West Bengal has been a preferred state for setting up one of our biggest cement manufacturing units. We are committed to stay invested in this state and are in fact planning to increase the capacity of our Salboni cement unit to 3.6 MTPA," JSW Cement's Managing Director Parth Jindal said.

"The Salboni unit's capacity expansion is part of our goal to achieve an overall production capacity of20 MTPA by 2020," he said.

The Salboni unit will service the company's customer requirements in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and northern parts of Orissa.

Banerjee said the group would take over the Salboni Multi Super Speciality Hospital that was built by the state government.